News Stories

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Dop

BBC:
Australian palaeontologists say they have discovered a new species of dinosaur on a sheep farm in the northern state of Queensland.
The fossil remains of the large plant-eating sauropod, nicknamed Zac, are about 97 million years old.
They were found near the town of Eromanga, in a fossil-rich area that was once covered by a vast inland sea.

...
"There will be hundreds of skeletons underneath the ground. The bone beds are so dense, you can hardly move for a dinosaur bone."


I wonder if Eromanga gets many disappointed Japanese tourists?

the town also has a large opai opal mine.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

the town also has a large opai opal mine.

*facepalm* Silicon and Opal are almost similar in chemical composition, but that doesn't mean.....oh wait, never mind.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Vinak

Robots take another step towards world domination.

Robots Learn to Lie



Is it important that computers and robots tell us the truth? Or should they learn to lie - like their human makers?
In an experiment performed in a Swiss laboratory, 10 robots with downward-facing sensors competed for "food" - a light-colored ring on the floor. At the other end of the space, a darker ring - "poison" - was placed. The robots earned points for how much time they spent near food as opposed to poison.
The experimenters, engineers Sara Mitri and Dario Floreano and evolutionary biologist Laurent Keller, also gave the robots the ability to talk with each other. Each robot can produce a blue light that can be seen by the others and which can give away the position of the "food" ring. Over time, the robots evolved to deceive each other about the food ring.



http://www.livescience.com/technolog...obots-lie.html

great idea built remote control predator drones, cybernetic insects, mechs and robots that eat meat, then we built a AI that can lie.

sounds like a really great idea.

[Xellos-_^]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BA4N19EJ35.DTL

A woman kidnapped as an 11-year-old girl nearly two decades ago from outside her South Lake Tahoe home has surfaced in Concord, and two people are in custody, authorities and the woman's stepfather said today.

Jaycee Dugard, now 29, walked into the Concord Police Department on Wednesday, stunning police and family members who had all but lost hope that she was still alive 18 years after she was kidnapped.

some good news for a change.

can't remember the name myself but i remember seeing the picture of her on tv back then.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by iLney

Ah, here's the source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/122333/Po...s-South.aspx#2.

I was afraid of that.... asking people to tag themselves on a simple left-right graph. Its more informative to ask a range of questions about particular issues and collate the results. This is no better than a personality profile test that asks one question: "are you a good person with healthy views?"

Most people have a range of views from conservative to liberal and statist to individualist on different issues. Libertarians, for example, don't fit anywhere properly on a simple left-right graph since that the graph mixes fiscal and social views. Neither do communitarians. People often self-identify what they *want* to be or what they think is "proper" than what they actually *are*.

Frankly, most Gallup polls suck in terms of construction or usefulness (as in they don't actually provide answers that mean anything). I often participate in Zogby polls, they do a little better (though their assessment portion of my demographic in each poll sucks as well).

[Nosauz]

well gallup does do a good job on election polls, considering its pretty basic who did you vote for, and not a broad general question like how do you lean.

[Shadow Kira01]

Originally Posted by Dop

BBC:
Australian palaeontologists say they have discovered a new species of dinosaur on a sheep farm in the northern state of Queensland.
The fossil remains of the large plant-eating sauropod, nicknamed Zac, are about 97 million years old.
They were found near the town of Eromanga, in a fossil-rich area that was once covered by a vast inland sea.

...
"There will be hundreds of skeletons underneath the ground. The bone beds are so dense, you can hardly move for a dinosaur bone."


I wonder if Eromanga gets many disappointed Japanese tourists?

I thought that was a typo..

There is actually a town with that name in Queensland!? *shock*

And back on-topic.. I have always been wondering.. How do scientists determine the age of dinosaur fossils? 97 million years old, huh? Speaking of which, what makes the scientists think the fossilized bones belong to that of a never-before-seen dinosaur as opposed to some lizards or snakes? I am a little curious yet I know the answer will always be unavailable.

[iLney]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I was afraid of that.... asking people to tag themselves on a simple left-right graph. Its more informative to ask a range of questions about particular issues and collate the results. This is no better than a personality profile test that asks one question: "are you a good person with healthy views?"

Most people have a range of views from conservative to liberal and statist to individualist on different issues. Libertarians, for example, don't fit anywhere properly on a simple left-right graph since that the graph mixes fiscal and social views. Neither do communitarians. People often self-identify what they *want* to be or what they think is "proper" than what they actually *are*.

Frankly, most Gallup polls suck in terms of construction or usefulness (as in they don't actually provide answers that mean anything). I often participate in Zogby polls, they do a little better (though their assessment portion of my demographic in each poll sucks as well).

Well, people identify themselves according to their interest. I am not surprised at the poll's result (regardless of its credibility) since what most people want is more free services and less tax, and those services that appeal to most actually worked when the budget was abundant; hence, "conservatives." I believe that the liberal crowd as a whole is actually more aware of their ideology (not to say that the surplus of the real conservatives do not have a clue..... err).

Back to the topic, I don't believe Obama can afford to lose all supports of conservatives.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Shadow Kira01

I thought that was a typo..

There is actually a town with that name in Queensland!? *shock*

And back on-topic.. I have always been wondering.. How do scientists determine the age of dinosaur fossils? 97 million years old, huh? Speaking of which, what makes the scientists think the fossilized bones belong to that of a never-before-seen dinosaur as opposed to some lizards or snakes? I am a little curious yet I know the answer will always be unavailable.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dating.html

(Also, what do you mean, unavailable? We're not talking about H-bomb manufacture, here. If you want to know about paleontology, study it. I'm sure there's a library not far from you. I'm sure you've got some kind of internet access. Knock yourself out.)

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Shadow Kira01

And back on-topic.. I have always been wondering.. How do scientists determine the age of dinosaur fossils? 97 million years old, huh? Speaking of which, what makes the scientists think the fossilized bones belong to that of a never-before-seen dinosaur as opposed to some lizards or snakes? I am a little curious yet I know the answer will always be unavailable.

The answer is completely available... a few courses in skeletal anatomy would explain why but bone structure follows predictable patterns allowing for complex forensics. A good bone person can glance at a hip bone and tell gender, age, and sometimes even race. A paleo-bone person can essentially do the same. Fossil age can be determined using radio-dating techniques (well-tested) and geological science (also well validated).

The main over-reach I often see in the field is simply that one skeleton or bone may result in far too tenuous a conclusion but that's where the egos step in.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by Vexx

The main over-reach I often see in the field is simply that one skeleton or bone may result in far too tenuous a conclusion but that's where the egos step in.

It gets rediculous sometimes too. A paleontolgist finds a partial femor from a new species and a few months later there's a show on the history channel or discovery channel with a 3d computer animation of what this new dinosaur looked like and acted like, when once again all they have to go on is a piece of one large bone. Sure that's probably enough to know this isn't a previously known species, and likely what known dinosaurs it's related to so you'll have some vague idea, but it doesn't say anything about skull shape, tail length, or the like.

[Xellos-_^]

continuation of the my pervious post

A woman kidnapped as an 11-year-old girl nearly two decades ago near her South Lake Tahoe home was kept prisoner in a squalid backyard compound outside Antioch and had at least two children with one of her alleged abductors, authorities said today.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...EJ35.DTL&tsp=1

i think it is time to bring back a good old fashion stoning. the state can sell ticket, $5 a rock to throw at that guy and his wife.

[mg1942]

lolz my city just declared war on California
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009...inesses-vegas/
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,3359732.story
(slightly old news, this one just flew under my radar)

[iLney]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

continuation of the my pervious post

i think it is time to bring back a good old fashion stoning. the state can sell ticket, $5 a rock to throw at that guy and his wife.

Don't jump to the conclusion so quickly. The guy said that there was a "hear-warming" story behind it...

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by mg1942

lolz my city just declared war on California
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009...inesses-vegas/
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,3359732.story
(slightly old news, this one just flew under my radar)

I would have preferred it if they use tanks and guns instead, so I could wage war on California the way I did in GTA San Andreas.

Or, better yet, fund the fucking university! The pride and joy of a developing city! The human infrastructure, the idea-maker, the ground zero of research and new business ideas! Oh, but of course not. Let's spend it on a stupid ad campaign instead.

[FateAnomaly]

Originally Posted by iLney

Don't jump to the conclusion so quickly. The guy said that there was a "hear-warming" story behind it...

You mean they get to burn him alive?

[Tiberium Wolf]

Is this another Josef Fritzl ?

[Shadow Kira01]

Xbox 360 failure rate = 54.2%?

Game Informer's survey of 5,000 console owners finds over half Microsoft's machines fail once, 41.2% fail twice; 10.6% of PS3s, 6.8% of Wiis also reported defective.

When it extended the Xbox 360's warranty to three years, Microsoft admitted the Xbox 360's failure rate was unacceptable. However, despite covering both the "Red Ring of Death" and E74 errors, the company has never admitted exactly how often its console suffers from technical problems or manufacturing defects.

CONSOLE FAILURE RATE
PlayStation 3 - 10.6 percent
Wii - 6.8 percent
Xbox 360 - 54.2 percent

SECOND CONSOLE FAILURE RATE
PlayStation 3 - 14.7 percent
Wii - 11 percent
Xbox 360 - 41.2 percent

GAMERS WITH FRIENDS WHO HAVE HAD A CONSOLE FAILURE
PlayStation 3 - 12.4 percent
Wii - 6 percent
Xbox 360 - 69.9 percent

Honestly, I have no idea why the X360 is so fragile...

Sadly, quite a number of good games appear as X360 Exclusive. However, anybody who sees the statistics of obtaining the famous "Red Rings of Death" will no doubt keep a distance from the console.

[Furuno]

Originally Posted by Shadow Kira01

Xbox 360 failure rate = 54.2%?
Honestly, I have no idea why the X360 is so fragile...

It's usually happens on older Xenon/Zephyr/Falcon 90nm machine. Mostly because overheating problem. Altough this problem is less likely to happens in newer generation Jasper due to improvements to 65nm process (which use less power thus run cooler) and (slightly) better heatsinks and manufacturing process...

Well... I'm a PC gamer, so this really doesn't affect me in any way...

[mg1942]

Toyota reportedly pulls plug on NUMMI plant
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...rst-for-Toyota

Hmmmm, so they KNOW when their time is up. Something tells me it's a REALLY bad time to buy a new Corolla or Tacoma for a little while. Disgruntled employees have shoddy workmanship.