I agree - even as a (supposedly) mature adult I've found time just slips by at a scary rate when playing (maybe I need one). For my eldest, however, she gets well and truly sucked into the game experience, losing all track of time. For a while we found her still playing beyond midnight on school days (this is on a PSP) and she seemed as surprised as we were. So I don't think it is just about enforcing rules... it is also about keeping those digital sirens in abeyance.
might i assume that you missed the episode where they experimented with inflating a chicken? 'in search of perfection' was one of my favorite tv shows for a while - it appealed to my inner gastro-geek.
If a game costs 50$ why the hell should there be ads in it? Who actually puts up with this enough to even make the idea look like something we would tolerate? I absolutely agree 100% with this. I'm, personally, getting utterly sick of having some glossy marketeer's latest gimmick shoved down my throat. This is especially when I find advertising in and on products I buy. Most print magazines are 50% loose pieces of advertising which need recycling before I can even find the contents page, which is buried between a picture of my next car and a picture of my next trophy wife gently caressing my next mobo. I pay for cable tv and yet get bombarded with ads (thank God for the sanctuary of the BBC, though, who are able to offer up ten times the quality for a fraction of the price). Now they think it is totally acceptable to put ads in games? Nutters. I really wish someone would put up a list of online companies which do not advertise - it would be my first port of call for future online shopping.
You are joking aren't you, security cameras have this week been proved ineffective in solving and preventing crime! With the greatest of respect, this study 1. does not "proove" anything - if you wanted to test the relationship between crimw clear-up rate and cctv then this is not the way you would do it, 2. studies in the beavhoural sciences typical 'falsify' 3. that study did not say anything about prevention. There's reference to a study completed in 2005 but this has been the topic of some contention in the world of criminology - some studies show one thing, another something completely different.
CCTV in the UK is primarily, and still is, for traffic monitoring. Very few CCTV feeds plug into police operations, they go via local government first. And even fewer police forces in the UK have control over the cameras.
As is typical in the UK, no one can be bothered to conduct the studies we clearly need. Money is spent on half-arsed speculation by people who don't even know what a t-test is.
Requirements include 'Must be a U.S. citizen between 5-foot-2 and 6-foot-3 in height (to squeeze into Russia's three-passenger Soyuz capsule)' 'At least a bachelor's degree in engineering, a biological or physical science, or mathematics' 'three years of relevant professional experience' and most interestingly 'Vision correctable to 20/20. OK - so the height bit I'm ok on - what about width?
I shudder at the lack of trust between this young man and his mother though. If it is justified, he will probably end up in jail once he turns 18 and can no longer be legally restrained. Well, sort of. But it is quite possible that a naive school project or a wrongly spelled word could take him/her to some quite revolting (imho) sites. So perhaps some filtering would help until he can bypass it and is actively seeking inspiration.
I overcome my lack of anonymity over email by writing such inane boring tedious drivel to no one in particular so that no one in their right mind could possibly want to read... zzzzz/marvin
The market does not and will not fund the most valuable research for society Spot on. Particularly where that research might result cause restrictions to market activity. For example research into the deleterious effects of smoking, etc..
there are publishers printing scientists' work but only allowing access to those who are willing to stump up some cash. these publishers usually retain copy write of the printed work and, recently, have been charging more and more for the privilege. since most of the better research that ends up in print is government funded this practice has been raising a few eye-brows. for more info take a look here.
Imho, polygraphs should not be used. The simple reason is that some of the more violent and unpleasant people, psychopaths, show blunted responses in psychophysiological tests compared to your 'regular' violent perpetrator. As psychopaths tend to be the ones we should really keep off the streets then a misinformed jury might take polygraph results as definitive evident the perpetrator (psychopath) had not committed the offense and judge accordingly. Also, with a bit of practice and insight, some people are able to control their responses or give misleading results. There's no definitive objective means determining whether someone is telling the truth or not... next to honest evidence the polygraph is pretty useless. It's a nice idea but anyone who has used these psychophysiological tests will know, for every half decent result you also get a fair bit of noise (excluding, of course, the people ho make and sell polygraph tests).
Other than a tenuous link with the Alien film which might be somewhat geeky I can't understand why this is newsworthy. Are these eels part of the open source community? I don't think so.
Keeping votes secret is one very important way to make sure any democracy works I agree. But on a related theme there's a problem with anonymity - it means independent third parties would have a hard time assessing how well voting machines are recording votes, or if there are peculiar distortions which might be attributable to the machines themselves.
should be peeing their pants right now and probably have been for some time now. The world is a rapidly changing place and (imho) I think we are beginning to see the virtualisation of real life. It will not be long before you'll see virtual graffiti daubed along the back alleys, characters from some MMORPG scurrying around your local church while 'old skool' religious types pray to someone who exanguinates, where the most valuable commercial real estate is not where people have time to shop but where people have time to browse. The wireless world is inevitable. For your regular consumer, selling bits through cable will be as relevant as pressing music on vinyl. Of course those who are anchored to their wires are scared and fighting their corner. Their end is nigh.
Have you looked at the research which suggests kids who learn from the TV (e.g. Sesame St) tend to do worse over time (socially) than kids whose parents took greater interest? It's ages since I looked at any of this... but all this teaching autistic kids made me think of it and started to wonder whether anyone has looked at the effects of those plastic toys that help kids learn the alphabet, etc.. It would be great if the ABCs of social interaction could be taught with robots, though and wish you luck.
Some, such as in the better known autistic savant, do. And there's a whole bunch of stuff linking autism spectrum disorder and autism with certain abilities. But the bottom line is that without social skills (and I don't just mean trolling/. I mean kids and caregivers suffering because of the lack of) these guys are never going to do particularly well in life. So to your question "but don't said children also have their own special abilities that tend to be lost the more they are socialized?" I don't know any research suggesting autism can be "fixed" but there's plenty of evidence that in many cases those with autism can learn some social skills - some do really really well. Does this displace any additional abilities? Well, it might but it's probably more likely that they find themselves enjoying life a little more and have less need to repetitively engage in less social activities.
Googling "google buys" provides a pretty rich and varied list of Google's acquisitions: YouTube, Grand Central, Feedburner, Measure Map... and on and on and on. There's even rumours in some parts that a tie up between Google and Apple might be on the cards. Sorry, but it's getting to the point where "Google buys" stories just aren't informative anymore.
Bible College Ooh, now come on - if your music was as successful as the bible then, at a guess, you'd be over the moon. Anyhow - I'm interested in music I haven't heard before - could you post a link somewhere?
neurologists and psychologists have demonstrated that this is fundamentally flawed, that much of our decision making is unconscious
I'm not sure that's entirely right... I think you'd find most psychologists agreeing that there's certainly a bunch of stuff going on that we are not aware of, but most of the decision/reasoning theorists might take issue with the view that decisions are somehow beyond conscious control. However, you are entitled to your opinion, whether you are aware of it or not.
thanks for these - i've seen and really like the look of o2's xda range - they were my first choice until the iphone popped up. it's one of those markets, though, where there's always something slightly better on the horizon. i've been putting this decision off for nearly six months (probably a good enough indication of how little i really need a new phone).
i hadn't thought through the itunes implication properly - so thanks for bringing that up as well.
On the one hand it's nice to have iPhone professionals replace the battery, rather than risk some backstreet operation with few guarantees that the thing will come back in good working order. On the other hand, why oh why did Apple make this choice in the first place? For someone who travels a lot not having the option to swap in a fresh battery could be a deal killer... especially as airline security now prohibits soldering irons in hand baggage. As someone who is looking for a new phone I'm finding that the iPhone is pretty much perfect - especially if they add in GPS when it comes to the UK. I really can't find anything better. But not being able to swap the battery will probably push me away.
I'm not saying these people were schizophrenic, but Harold Shipman was estimated fo have killed 284 people with drugs, Ted Bundy just strangled or bludgeoned his victims. But my point was more that it's not the number of murders committed in the sense that someone killing one person should be dealt with any more leniently than someone who kills ten
Cho was evidently capable of killing, in hindsight. Predicting what should be done with him before he has done it, however, it not a decision about giving him access to a gun. Logically, the decision revolves around how dangerous he might be inthe future... with or without guns.
the motivation should be to prevent murder
From the psychiatrist reports I've heard (which, admittedly, have only been from talking head doctors on the news), he was certainly delusional but he was not schizophrenic. The shooting was too well planned to be something that was done by a schizo. Which basically means he would have been even more difficult to diagnose prior to last April. As far as i know delusional ideation is one of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. And being schizophrenic does not disable the ability to plan. Google tower of london (a good planning task) and schizophrenia if you don't believe me.
Cho had barn-door schizophrenia, from what I've read no one would doubt be had some pretty serious mental health issues. However, there will always be schizophrenics in the community and a great number will do nothing more serious than a bit of mumbling, etc.. Spotting the very few who will become violent (having had little of no prior history, a very rare breed) and pose risk to others is enormously difficult and takes a great deal of experience. Coupled with the problems of getting it wrong, basically curtailing someones future, stigmatizing them indefinitely, etc., when they haven't actually committed a crime I can understand why clinicians are reluctant to act without very definite evidence this person will harm others. So with Cho, I can understand why no one did anything...
The issue of prohibiting access to firearms is moot - if he hadn't had access to a gun he probably would have used a sword, or a knife, or burned a few buildings down, etc.. The point is, he was dangerous and the only reasonable form of prevention would have been to remove him from society - but the risk of false positives probably means all the hand wringing in the world will not stop another Cho.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree - even as a (supposedly) mature adult I've found time just slips by at a scary rate when playing (maybe I need one). For my eldest, however, she gets well and truly sucked into the game experience, losing all track of time. For a while we found her still playing beyond midnight on school days (this is on a PSP) and she seemed as surprised as we were. So I don't think it is just about enforcing rules... it is also about keeping those digital sirens in abeyance.
might i assume that you missed the episode where they experimented with inflating a chicken? 'in search of perfection' was one of my favorite tv shows for a while - it appealed to my inner gastro-geek.
CCTV in the UK is primarily, and still is, for traffic monitoring. Very few CCTV feeds plug into police operations, they go via local government first. And even fewer police forces in the UK have control over the cameras.
As is typical in the UK, no one can be bothered to conduct the studies we clearly need. Money is spent on half-arsed speculation by people who don't even know what a t-test is.
Or even a temporary tattoo with the drug name, date, time and dose. Now that could save a few lives I'd imagine.
I overcome my lack of anonymity over email by writing such inane boring tedious drivel to no one in particular so that no one in their right mind could possibly want to read... zzzzz /marvin
there are publishers printing scientists' work but only allowing access to those who are willing to stump up some cash. these publishers usually retain copy write of the printed work and, recently, have been charging more and more for the privilege. since most of the better research that ends up in print is government funded this practice has been raising a few eye-brows. for more info take a look here.
Imho, polygraphs should not be used. The simple reason is that some of the more violent and unpleasant people, psychopaths, show blunted responses in psychophysiological tests compared to your 'regular' violent perpetrator. As psychopaths tend to be the ones we should really keep off the streets then a misinformed jury might take polygraph results as definitive evident the perpetrator (psychopath) had not committed the offense and judge accordingly. Also, with a bit of practice and insight, some people are able to control their responses or give misleading results. There's no definitive objective means determining whether someone is telling the truth or not... next to honest evidence the polygraph is pretty useless. It's a nice idea but anyone who has used these psychophysiological tests will know, for every half decent result you also get a fair bit of noise (excluding, of course, the people ho make and sell polygraph tests).
Have you looked at the research which suggests kids who learn from the TV (e.g. Sesame St) tend to do worse over time (socially) than kids whose parents took greater interest? It's ages since I looked at any of this... but all this teaching autistic kids made me think of it and started to wonder whether anyone has looked at the effects of those plastic toys that help kids learn the alphabet, etc.. It would be great if the ABCs of social interaction could be taught with robots, though and wish you luck.
Some, such as in the better known autistic savant, do. And there's a whole bunch of stuff linking autism spectrum disorder and autism with certain abilities. But the bottom line is that without social skills (and I don't just mean trolling /. I mean kids and caregivers suffering because of the lack of) these guys are never going to do particularly well in life. So to your question "but don't said children also have their own special abilities that tend to be lost the more they are socialized?" I don't know any research suggesting autism can be "fixed" but there's plenty of evidence that in many cases those with autism can learn some social skills - some do really really well. Does this displace any additional abilities? Well, it might but it's probably more likely that they find themselves enjoying life a little more and have less need to repetitively engage in less social activities.
Googling "google buys" provides a pretty rich and varied list of Google's acquisitions: YouTube, Grand Central, Feedburner, Measure Map... and on and on and on. There's even rumours in some parts that a tie up between Google and Apple might be on the cards. Sorry, but it's getting to the point where "Google buys" stories just aren't informative anymore.
i hadn't thought through the itunes implication properly - so thanks for bringing that up as well.
cheers
s
On the one hand it's nice to have iPhone professionals replace the battery, rather than risk some backstreet operation with few guarantees that the thing will come back in good working order. On the other hand, why oh why did Apple make this choice in the first place? For someone who travels a lot not having the option to swap in a fresh battery could be a deal killer... especially as airline security now prohibits soldering irons in hand baggage. As someone who is looking for a new phone I'm finding that the iPhone is pretty much perfect - especially if they add in GPS when it comes to the UK. I really can't find anything better. But not being able to swap the battery will probably push me away.
I just hope they remembered to take out the extended on-site warranty!
Cho was evidently capable of killing, in hindsight. Predicting what should be done with him before he has done it, however, it not a decision about giving him access to a gun. Logically, the decision revolves around how dangerous he might be inthe future... with or without guns. the motivation should be to prevent murder
The issue of prohibiting access to firearms is moot - if he hadn't had access to a gun he probably would have used a sword, or a knife, or burned a few buildings down, etc.. The point is, he was dangerous and the only reasonable form of prevention would have been to remove him from society - but the risk of false positives probably means all the hand wringing in the world will not stop another Cho.