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  1. Been done in Europe already, see the Warsaw videos on Civilian Use of Drone Aircraft May Soon Fly In the US · · Score: 1

    Yup, been done in Europe already. Check the video of the protestor in Warsaw who used a camera to fly over police lines.

  2. You mean un-Dutch? on Paper On Super Flu Strain May Be Banned From Publication · · Score: 1

    "Finally! A disease sent from God to punish people for being Un-American."

    Err, the researcher is from the Netherlands. So I guess you mean punishing those who are un-Dutch? ;-)

  3. less ethical times? on California Going Ahead With Bullet Train · · Score: 1

    1. Reintroduce carrying out acts of violence against land owners who won't sell their land to you at a price you the train company finds acceptable 2. Reintroduce brutal working conditions and very low wages for workers 3. Repeal all health and safety legislation introduced since the last hundred years (so no safety glasses, ear protectors, safety lamps for workers, handle dynamite for blasting without safety gear, don't provide any medical help for injured workers past 19th century style medicine and first aid

    I think that will help you get closer. Now, would you like to sign up as one of the labourers for building this line?

  4. So not everybody who did well dropped out... on The Sketchbook of Susan Kare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So not everybody who did well dropped out: a PhD in art history as well as a maker (her PhD thesis title "A study of the use of caricature in selected sculptures of Honore Daumier and Claes Oldenburg").

    Nice to know it's possible to balance the two, it will make some of my PhD student friends very happy indeed :-)

  5. Also used in military, finance, air traffic, etc.. on US Gives Raytheon $10.5M For 'Serious Games' · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Serious games" is a term open for laughing at - but they are used for training in a lot of domains. Another term might be "simulation" and if you start thinking in those terms you're into pilots learning to fly 747's, air traffic controllers managing crisis situations without anybody actually dying, doctors practicing surgery, and so on. These are all out there. I think the game vs. simulation definition might boil down to a simulation with a win scenario, in which case you can bring in the military using variants of Doom and other shooters to train soldiers in team work, financial traders playing sims that improve their trading behaviour, and so forth.

    In all the above, if you take data from the player, either by a sensor measuring heart rate, or just by the style of their game play, it's theorised that you can deduce emotion /cognitive biases and help people improve upon these, either by playing games in a diagnostic mode and then giving them feedback or live feedback in a didactic mode.

    Currently I am working on EU project which is investigating (amongst other things) whether serious games can be used to overcome emotion bias in financial investors: http://www.xdelia.org/

  6. We could call it "Taxes"..... on Ask Slashdot: Crowdfunding For Science — Can It Succeed? · · Score: 2

    I know, why don't a lot of us who live in the same area agree to all put in some of our money regularly, and use it to pay for science, but also to pay for some people to keep the roads in good condition, keep an eye on bad people, let some people not have to do their jobs full time but instead be full time teachers, full time doctors, that kind of thing. That would be a fantastic way of sharing out the costs amongst us and make sure science and other things get done that wouldn't happen otherwise. We could even crowdsource the decision making process, call it "government". And the crowdsourced income generating strategy, we could call it "taxes".

    I'm not sure it will succeed, but I've heard a rumour that science is funded in some other countries in this way, in some cases for quite a few years...

  7. In Capitalist USA, Soviet Russia launches you! on Progress Spacecraft Launch Successful · · Score: 1

    In the hands of the Russians then, see how they get on. Because the USA doesn't have any other options and they might have to go along with what the Russians decide. Though I am sure the ISS management has contingency plans for putting the station into dormant mode in case of emergency.

  8. I assume your parents were rich? your solution? on Student Loans In America: the Next Big Credit Bubble · · Score: 2

    I assume your parents were rich enough to pay for you to go through further education debt-free, or you had another income source that ensured you would not need to take on debt? Interested to hear your story and your solution.

      I can't speak for the USA, but here in the UK, it's likely that students will have to pay 9000GBP a year for course fees, plus accomodation, food, transport, other costs. Some may have access to 10K GBP a year at aged 18 but many won't. So many academically capable 18 year olds need to take on 30K+ debt, gambling that this is an acceptable risk and can be paid off later by the expectation of a higher paid job gained by a university qualification.

    People are asking many questions about taking on this debt, some are demonstrating, some are writing to their political representatives, some are deciding not to continue into higher education. I doubt many of them have found ways of creating 30K overnight i nthe middle of a global recession, particularl those who are less well off financially.

    My impression is that you were either blessed with rich enough parents that you didn't have to worry about debt, found an alternative income stream (I believe in the US the military pays for some education?), or didn't go on to higher (university degree) education?

    I am interested to hear your solutions for those who don't have access to 30K or more....

  9. No, nobody here really speaks gaelic... on Ask Slashdot: How Are You Haunting Your House This Hallowe'en? · · Score: 1

    No, most of my mates in Scotland don't speak Gaelic so they just call it hallowe'en, some of them samhuinn.

    Down here in England there are very few gaelic speakers indeed and so it's just halloween, even those folks who do speak gaelic translate it into English when they are speaking with English speakers so people know what they are on about. Only folk who know their mates are into traditions and are really into traditional folk beliefs and links with Scotland will call it samhuinn, nobody else will know what they are on about.

    Can't say what folk in Ireland call it when speaking in English.

  10. no, he just wanted his lot of rich folks in power on Ask Slashdot: How Are You Haunting Your House This Hallowe'en? · · Score: 1

    Nice line of course ;-) .... but alas if you read the history he just wanted his lot of rich nobility in power instead of the incumbent lot. Tied up with sectarianism (he was Catholic Christian, wanted his lot in, wanted the Protestant Christians out) as we have a nice line in religious intolerance and Catholics and Protestants were taking turns being brutal to each other, not much in there about democracy and human rights and making the country a better place.

    Do correct me and educate me if I've got this wrong.

    But of course I do like the cheeky line about honest intentions, politicians eh?

  11. He's a catering manager, not a geek on Man Has Nokia Phone Embedded In False Limb · · Score: 1

    He's a catering manager, not a geek. He probably doesn't have a clue what shell scripts are, he just wants to text his wife and let her know he'll be a bit late home from work, phone customers while in his office, etc. Maybe Nokia told him he'd have to pay extra for a N900 and he's happy enough with the phone he's got. Maybe got other more important things to spend money on than an expensive phone.

    You do make cool suggestions, you should drop him a line, maybe he'd be interested.

    Shame on Apple for turning him away though.

  12. And imagine if they succeeded... on US's Most Powerful Nuclear Bomb Being Dismantled · · Score: 1

    Me too, except I was imagining the Soviet bomb squad de-activating it, and some US general going loopy as he realises that's the only one they've got and the danged Russkies have just switched it off... "... so whadda we going to do now?!"

  13. Unions protect teachers from nutty parents on Bill Gates On What Business Can Teach Schools · · Score: 1

    Teachers unions protect teachers from nutty parents.... A few years ago a friend of mine, a dedicated teacher, had to pull apart two 10 year olds who were fighting. One parent walked in as he's trying to separate these boys and promptly accuses my friend of assaulting their child. My friend ends up in court, is suspended from work, is facing losing their job, being banned from their profession that they've gone to college to be qualified in, to be publicly denounced as violent: all because a parent is a complete idiot and thinks their little thug is all sweetness and light and butter won't melt in their mouth.

    I don't know how it works in your country, but in my country (UK) sometimes the person in the right doesn't win, it's the person who can afford the best lawyer, can spend the most money. My poor friend was terrified. Luckily, he belongs to the union, so they could get a lawyer in on his behalf, fight his case. He was completely proved innocent. Idiot parents nearly destroyed his life but were proved totally wrong. The other parents, incidently, had apologised to him as soon as they found out their kid had been in a fight that the teacher had had to break up, and had disciplined their child.

    Unions protect teachers from parents who believe the teachers are always in the wrong and that butter won't melt in the mouth of their little darling children. You want good teachers to work in run down areas? Protect teachers from crazy parents for a start, let them get on with teaching and ensuring order in their classrooms.

    Surprised that different teachers get paid different amounts in different schools in your country - over here there is a national pay scale.

  14. So are there any free markets? on Solar Panel Trade War Heats Up · · Score: 1

    Thanks for your measured response. So my naive response would be: are there ever any examples of large scale free markets? Surely at any level of international trade, there are government rules to be followed, and national political agendas to be negotiated with, so there is no such thing as a free market, nor has there ever been? All the way through recorded history local and national authorities have influenced trade either informally or formally, whether through tax breaks and surcharges for different parties, or informally through just making it difficult for some people to trade and easier for others to move and sell their goods?

    I can imagine there are examples at a very local level of truly free markets, e.g. something like ebay in one country, where I can pick and choose which second hand iphone I want to buy, and sellers have to compete fairly equally, or farmers at a vegetable market all selling similar goods, but as soon as you hit national boundaries surely government interventions will always be a factor? Even if it's indirectly, such as when a country's government might insist producers in their country pay their workers a minimum wage, and so make the prices of goods produced there more expensive than thoe same goods produced in another country where there is no minimum wage (or a lower one)?

    cheers.

  15. Cheating? Free market? how does this work? on Solar Panel Trade War Heats Up · · Score: 1

    I thought "the invisible hand of the market" was supposed to make things work. How does "cheating" occur? Can somebody explain to me what "cheating" means in this context?

    Isn't this an element of the free market (if one supplier decides it is worth subsidising their product to build market share, or pay its workers less)? Or does the "free market" assume no government intervention - which I can't see ever being the case, there have been "governments" as long as there have been markets, at least for the last 5000 years anyway, no period in that time where there haven't been governments in existence somewhere in the world (and therefore affecting markets).

    If this is "cheating" , could somebody point me to the guidebook that tells me what is considered fair and what is considered cheating in the world of free markets, and crucially, who enforces the guidebook of rules?

    I might be naive, and please educate me here, but I would have assumed this behaviour is part of markets and how they work, rather than external to markets (therefore considered not playing the game properly). Hence not cheating, but just part of what happens?

    thanks! (really must do an economics course sometime, it's all very confusing to me).

  16. One crazy MP does not change the laws of the EU on EU Debates Installing a Black Box On Your Computer · · Score: 1

    One MP having a crazy idea does not mean the law will get changed over the whole of the EU. There are many examples of MPs who have changed one law but failed to change other laws. Every country has their radical MPs who make grand statements to capture media attention, it doesn't mean that their ideas will become law (we have to be thankful that the craziest ideas of the craziest US representatives haven't become law in the USA over the last 50 years).

  17. not sure they had Watts either... on All-Electric DeLorean Car To Hit the Streets In 2013 · · Score: 1

    Not sure the ancient Greeks had watts as a measure orf energy (well, pretty certain of that actually ;-) ) so I think it's irrelevant, it's a modern term, and so modern localised pronunciation is fine I'd say. The ancient greeks didn't recognise the nations of USA or UK so the whole debate about how you pronounce "tomato" is probably not important either.

  18. crickey... on Columbus Blamed For Mini Ice Age · · Score: 1

    crickey, some way to go on improving the history curriculum then! Does history teaching start with the Europeans coming to the USA, or do they do go through earlier civilisations first?

    Old stuff was always the most fun stuff for us here in the UK :-) loads of Celts and Romans and Saxons and Vikings charging round the place, invading and setting fire to things. A few fine castles and a couple more invasions then it all settles down to pretty boring political and social history by the renaissance... ;-) (I think folk were a bit sheepish about the Empire when I was at school in the 70s....)

  19. What's the fascination with Columbus? on Columbus Blamed For Mini Ice Age · · Score: 1

    Do the majority of US citizens still believe Columbus discovered America in 1492?

    Basically, I guess it's just a crap headline to draw the audience in? The article itself indicates that a mini ice age looks to have been *delayed* by European invasion, by wiping out the local population (both on purpose and accidently), they created a carbon sink of trees growing up in deforested areas, which they them later cut down. So I guess after a while the landscape looked closer to how it had been before the Europeans invaded?

  20. Look at a map - near to coast, tourism on NATO Exercise Banned From Jamming GPS · · Score: 1

    Look at a map of the area, a lot of the naval exercises are held less than 20 miles from shore. Islands and west coast of Scotland is prime tourist area, walking in wild places and outdoor sports are big here. Jamming GPS here might mean walkers getting lost (yes I know they should be able to navigate without GPS, but hey, they still come, and they still spend money in the hotels and local shops) and if they do get lost, mountain rescue might have to go out in rain and fog and snow and try to get them back off the hills and moors, so they might need GPS to coordinate with air sea rescue helicopters etc.

    Close down tourism in this area and you've got a lot of unhappy local people and a lot more local unemployment.

    This isn't the Pacific Ocean we're talking about here, where you can just shove off another couple of hundred miles....

  21. In Capitalist USA - Soviet Russia launches you! on Boeing Suggests Possible Manned Version of the X-37B Space Plane · · Score: 2

    Would be good to have the USA back in the list of countries capable of launching its own astronauts for sure, the more countries the merrier. Also would be great to see some of the private concerns in the USA successfully launching man-capable spacecraft.

  22. Never too late... on How Do You Educate a Prodigy? · · Score: 1

    It's never too late to learn, or to reach your potential. I know of people who've started PhD's when they've retired from their working lives.

    If somebody was a highly intelligent / talented child and didn't have the opportunity to flourish when they were young, they may be able to push themselves later in life. Certainly this is more likely in the developed and wealthy parts of the world where adult education opportunities are more widely available.

    There are many people across different ability spectra who didn't have the opportunity to reach the goals they were capable of as a child. This is why giving people the opportunity for life long learning is important.

  23. in new money: 36880 metres on Qu8k Rockets Above the Balloons · · Score: 1

    Congratulations, here's to amateur rocketeers and other hackers doing interesting things.

    For those of you in countries using metric measurement systems for space engineering, that's 36,880 metres approximately.

  24. solid brick vs cheap wood framed on Ohio Supreme Court Drawn Into Magnetic Homes Case · · Score: 1

    Round where I live the option is 20 year old wood framed, dry wall and clad modern places, versus brick built 100 year old houses. I've lived in both, and I prefer solid brick built houses. Much better build quality on the older places, much more solid. As another poster has noted, my place has done all it's settling. Insulation isn't so good for keeping the heat in, but definitely bettter sound insulation. Definitely you need to update the electrics and check out the quality of plumbing, but you need to do that in any property over 20 years old (in the UK electric regulations change about once every ten years so you need to be thinking about keeping your electrics up to date if you want to sell the place).

      Modern places you can punch your first through the wall, mine, you need a heck of a drill to put up a picture frame. Mind you this at least is a bit easier than the last place, a 1720s house. Not a lot you can do with 2 foot thick stone walls apart from route everything round them.... :-)

  25. still waiting for that reference... and seatbelts. on Paris Launches World's First Electric Car Share Program · · Score: 1

    Nope... your opinion doesn't count as a decent scientific reference, if you could link to something that would be great, thanks.

    Funny you mention seatbelts, as this is a pretty bad comparison. Three months ago me/my girlfriend/another friend were the first people to arrive at a four-car pile up on a long straight country road, turns out the guy who overtook us at speed a couple of minutes before then tried to overtake a van and went straight into a car coming the other way, and another car behind this crash then hit all the cars and came through. Everybody survived apart from the guy who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, he died. The others: two with minor wounds and one with a broken leg and chest injuries (he's mending well apparently). So seatbelt or no seatbelt? I'll choose seatbelt. Unfortunately I saw it all, had to call in the ambulances, go round turning off engines, comfort the guy who was smashed up, nothing I could do for the guy wrapped up in his car dead with lots of blood and no seat belt.

    Please mate, wear a seat belt. Seeing that guy in a mess still warm but obviously dead was really not nice, I am guessing he left parents or kids behind and certainly friends. Don't do it to your family and friends.