Delicious LiveJournal Links for 12-2-2010

[andrewducker]

• New psychology theory enables computers to mimic human creativity
  (tags: creativity computers intelligence research ai psychology)
• High stress levels can be passed on to children epigenetically
  (tags: genetics stress psychology children)
• What if Jesus was a Culture agent?
  (tags: IainBanks TheCulture)
• How YouPorn Checks What Other Porn Sites You’ve Visited (and Ad Networks Test The Quality of Their Data)
  (tags: privacy security porn)
• Why Julian "Wikileaks" Assange deserves a Nobel Peace Prize
  (tags: politics wikileaks democracy media freedom government capitalism control TransparentSociety)
• If you have Spotify you can hear a sampler of Daft Punk's Tron soundtrack. First impressions are good.
  (tags: DaftPunk Tron soundtrack music spotify)
• The Met Office answers the question I've been wondering for the last couple of days: Why is it so cold and snowy?
  (tags: weather uk scotland snow)
• Obama asks the Senate to repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell law.
  (tags: politics lgbt usa military)
• Dear Ms. Moon (a very short science fiction story)
  (tags: scifi story short_story)
• Republicans sending 2 million people to the homeless shelters for Christmas, as they block jobless benefits extension.
  (tags: benefits welfare usa)
• We live in the age of fading technology
  (tags: nostalgia hardware change time trends)
• LG working on a quantum dot television. Lighter and more efficient than existing tvs.
  (tags: television quantum technology)
• How smart, analytical people can avoid accidentally violating the "don't be a dick" principle
  (tags: intelligence social conversation socialskills)
• IBM's nanophotonics means Exascale computing on the way
  (tags: ibm technology optical photonics)
• Raised mercury levels in wetland birds increase homosexual behaviour
  (tags: homosexuality lgbt birds mercury hormones)
• Prenatal testosterone levels correlated with prostate cancer (it's the finger-ratios again - I love that stat)
  (tags: cancer health hormones men testosterone)

Comments

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

One thing that weather report doesn't explain is why it's so damn cold everywhere else as well or does the warm westerly winds warm russia 'n' all?

[andrewducker]

Is Russia unusually cold at the moment?

I dunno how far the warm westerlies reach - I thought we were getting Siberian winds carrying their usualy weather in our direction at the moment.

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

Average for November is -3.9C in Moscow. For December it's -7.9C

Today it's -16C and I'm pretty sure I saw that it was less than -20C yesterday. I think I saw a bbc report saying it was the coldest 1st of December in Moscow ever recorded. The annual record is nearly -40C though so they've a way to go.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Do you know where the first link comes from? I can't tell if it's a parody or bullshit or actually about something. "the coin is a fake – “B.C.” and Arabic numerals did not exist at the time" seems to miss the much more obvious problem of why it says "BC" at all. And it seems bizarre whatever program they're using understands the question, let alone understands it a very specific percentage of the time. I'm hopeless at telling when AI/psychology stuff is meaningful :(

[andrewducker]

I got it from Hacker News, I believe. Can't tell you anything more than that!

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

I read it as listing two distinct issues in a elliptic way; to paraphrase, ""BC" on an ancient coin is an absurdity. Even passing that over, Arabic numerals did not exist at the claimed date".

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, hm, yes, I think you're right. Not helped by the article lifting the explanation verbatim. I think I heard this joke aloud first, so it hadn't occurred to me that someone saying "a coin marked 54 BC" meant literally "54", but rather, "the number 54, represented in words, or roman numerals, or whatever was in currency[1] at the time."

[1] pun :)

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

> How smart, analytical people can avoid accidentally violating the "don't be a dick" principle

Nyyyyyargh.

I know it makes sense but examples like this, and the thought of having to write like this:

> There's a few ways it could be done differently. For instance, an email that says, "Hey Sebastian, I wanted to give you a heads up. I saw your recent post, but you spelled "wisen" as "wizen" - easy spelling error to make, since they're uncommonly used words, but I thought you should know. "Wizen" means for things to dry up and lose water. Cheers and best wishes."

-- just sticks in my craw.

[matgb]

I like that defecting by accident article.

It's something I'm observing in economics. When I use economic terms and talk about economic problems, I'm dismissed as some sort of evil right winger, even when I'm talking about how to tax the rich to help the poor, break up corporations and save the environment.

If I reword it into non specific ambiguous fluffy language that's open to misinterpretation and misunderstanding, I'm suddenly a radical lefty again.

Unfortunately, the latter takes a lot of work, the former is explicit and clear to people that've done the basic of economics (And that's all it takes, just the basics, one book to read).

So I need to relearn how to sell the idea of externalities and barriers to entry to non analytical types, but not be patronising. And I sometimes can't be bothered.

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Conversely, in geeky meeting places, it's usually easier to get a glip contradiction than an engaged debate or discussion; everybody's rushing to show off how clever they are.

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

By way of an experiment, I have posted a plausible WikiLeaks conspiracy theory on my LJ (one I've been pondering, so not just posted for the sake of this). I predict the first comment will be dismissive, not of the idea of a conspiracy, but that any harm has been done.

[robhu.livejournal.com]

http://youchoose.yougov.com/centralgov/

[andrewducker]

Cheers. Not got time to look at it right now, will take a look tonight.