http://mises.org/story/3106
My suspicions about government were confirmed early on in my employment. One of my first assignments was to analyze the "need" for commuter airline service subsidies in Arizona. I went into this study with virtually no knowledge of the industry. I was stunned to discover that so little of the cost for the service was paid for by the passengers. The benefit/cost ratio and rate of return for every option under consideration were negative. Upon presenting these findings to AzDOT management, along with my recommendation that the state not get involved in such a venture, I was rebuked. My task, I was informed, was not to ascertain whether tax dollars would be committed to this program, but to advise on how they ought to be dispensed. "The door to the subsidy program is already open," said the division director. "Our job is to shovel the money out."
Friday, September 4, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
U-Haul Traps Another Customer, This Time In Stairwell
http://consumerist.com/5351999/u+haul-traps-another-customer-this-time-in-stairwell
Michael and his girlfriend were on the 4th floor of the U-Haul storage facility at 1015 S 12th Street in Philadelphia, PA. They'd hired movers to carry down the contents of their storage room, but they decided to help by carrying smaller items down the stairwell (to leave the elevator free for the professional movers).
Once they stepped through, however, they realized they'd made a huge mistake.
Michael and his girlfriend were on the 4th floor of the U-Haul storage facility at 1015 S 12th Street in Philadelphia, PA. They'd hired movers to carry down the contents of their storage room, but they decided to help by carrying smaller items down the stairwell (to leave the elevator free for the professional movers).
Once they stepped through, however, they realized they'd made a huge mistake.
The Laser Elevator
http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/02/15/the-laser-elevator/
This is why solar sails are so slow. It’s not that light doesn’t have that much energy, it’s that it has so little momentum. If you set a squirrel on a solar sail and shone a laser on the underside, do you know how much power would be required to lift the squirrel? About 1.21 gigawatts.
This is why solar sails are so slow. It’s not that light doesn’t have that much energy, it’s that it has so little momentum. If you set a squirrel on a solar sail and shone a laser on the underside, do you know how much power would be required to lift the squirrel? About 1.21 gigawatts.
Craigslist
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/17-09/ff_craigslist?currentPage=all
The battle flows back and forth. Captchas—distorted words that can be interpreted by humans more easily than by machines—tamed spam on craigslist for a while. Then it came back full force, not because the spammers had solved the difficult problem in artificial intelligence but because they had hacked an easier problem in global economics. I recently established a friendly email dialog with a young man in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who works on a 13-person team that creates craigslist spam. He fills in Captchas, creates new accounts with masked IP addresses, and posts ads all day long using text from a database provided by his employer, an anonymous spam king. The going price for a spam post on craigslist is about 50 cents, with large discounts for volume. When I told Buckmaster about my new friend, he took the news calmly. "These are technically sophisticated people who take pride in their work, and when we knock them down they don't just decide to go find something else to do. You could say we are breeding the perfect spammer."
The battle flows back and forth. Captchas—distorted words that can be interpreted by humans more easily than by machines—tamed spam on craigslist for a while. Then it came back full force, not because the spammers had solved the difficult problem in artificial intelligence but because they had hacked an easier problem in global economics. I recently established a friendly email dialog with a young man in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who works on a 13-person team that creates craigslist spam. He fills in Captchas, creates new accounts with masked IP addresses, and posts ads all day long using text from a database provided by his employer, an anonymous spam king. The going price for a spam post on craigslist is about 50 cents, with large discounts for volume. When I told Buckmaster about my new friend, he took the news calmly. "These are technically sophisticated people who take pride in their work, and when we knock them down they don't just decide to go find something else to do. You could say we are breeding the perfect spammer."
On Influenza A (H1N1 [Swine Flu])
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=353
So how many bits are in this instance of H1N1? The raw number of bits, by my count, is 26,022; the actual number of coding bits approximately 25,054 -- I say approximately because the virus does the equivalent of self-modifying code to create two proteins out of a single gene in some places (pretty interesting stuff actually), so it’s hard to say what counts as code and what counts as incidental non-executing NOP sleds that are required for self-modifying code.
So how many bits are in this instance of H1N1? The raw number of bits, by my count, is 26,022; the actual number of coding bits approximately 25,054 -- I say approximately because the virus does the equivalent of self-modifying code to create two proteins out of a single gene in some places (pretty interesting stuff actually), so it’s hard to say what counts as code and what counts as incidental non-executing NOP sleds that are required for self-modifying code.
So it takes about 25 kilobits -- 3.2 kbytes -- of data to code for a virus that has a non-trivial chance of killing a human. This is more efficient than a computer virus, such as MyDoom, which rings in at around 22 kbytes.
It’s humbling that I could be killed by 3.2 kbytes of genetic data. Then again, with 850 Mbytes of data in my genome, there’s bound to be an exploit or two.
Graffiti study bolsters 'broken windows' theory
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/21/science/sci-graffiti21
In a series of real-world experiments, people exposed to graffiti, litter and other cues of lawlessness were more likely to commit small crimes, according to a study published today that bolsters the controversial "broken windows" theory of policing.
The idea is that low-level offenses like vandalism and panhandling create an environment that breeds bigger crimes. According to the theory, cops can help head off serious violence by keeping minor infractions in check.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Astronomers Find the Calmest Place On Earth
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/09/02/155256/Astronomers-Find-the-Calmest-Place-On-Earth?art_pos=13
"Live Science reports that astronomers in search of the perfect site to take pictures of the heavens have combined data from satellites, ground stations and climate models in a study to assess the many factors that affect image quality — cloud cover, temperature, sky-brightness, water vapor, wind speeds and atmospheric turbulence. They have pinpointed the coldest, driest, calmest place on earth, known simply as Ridge A, 13,297 feet high on the Antarctic Plateau. 'It's so calm that there's almost no wind or weather there at all,' says study leader Will Saunders, of the Anglo-Australian Observatory. 'The astronomical images taken at Ridge A should be at least three times sharper than at the best sites currently used by astronomers.' Located within the Australian Antarctic Territory, the site is 89 miles from the PLATO (PLATeau Observatory) international robotic observatory. The new site would be superior to the best existing observatories on high mountain tops in Hawaii and Chile, Saunders says. 'Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly-sized telescope would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth.'"
"Live Science reports that astronomers in search of the perfect site to take pictures of the heavens have combined data from satellites, ground stations and climate models in a study to assess the many factors that affect image quality — cloud cover, temperature, sky-brightness, water vapor, wind speeds and atmospheric turbulence. They have pinpointed the coldest, driest, calmest place on earth, known simply as Ridge A, 13,297 feet high on the Antarctic Plateau. 'It's so calm that there's almost no wind or weather there at all,' says study leader Will Saunders, of the Anglo-Australian Observatory. 'The astronomical images taken at Ridge A should be at least three times sharper than at the best sites currently used by astronomers.' Located within the Australian Antarctic Territory, the site is 89 miles from the PLATO (PLATeau Observatory) international robotic observatory. The new site would be superior to the best existing observatories on high mountain tops in Hawaii and Chile, Saunders says. 'Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly-sized telescope would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth.'"
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
NH negotiating with teen over $25,000 rescue fine
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_hiker_fined
New Hampshire and a Massachusetts Eagle Scout who needed to be rescued from Mount Washington are negotiating the size of his fine, which the state initially set at $25,000.
New Hampshire and a Massachusetts Eagle Scout who needed to be rescued from Mount Washington are negotiating the size of his fine, which the state initially set at $25,000.
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