Things that make you go "Hmmmm…"

[only_human]

"Dangerously Venomous” Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake Sighting in California

The sea snake sighting is particularly rare because yellow-bellied sea snakes typically live in warmer, tropical waters. It’s not totally clear what brought the snake to southern California, but naturalists suspect El Niño is causing ocean surface temperatures to rise in the Pacific. And voilà. Everyone out of the water. The last time one was seen in California was 30 years ago, also in an El Niño year.

The yellow-bellied sea snake typically lives out its entire life in the ocean subsisting on small fish and eels. It can also dive and stay under water for three hours. And, fun fact, it can do this: “In order to remove foreign items from its body such as algae, barnacles, or other growths acquired by a life at sea, this snake ties a knot in its body and runs the knot from one end of the body to the other, cleaning the skin in the process.”

[science_man_88]

An algorithm can predict human behavior better than humans

You might presume, or at least hope, that humans are better at understanding fellow humans than machines are. But a new MIT study suggests an algorithm can predict someone’s behavior faster and more reliably than humans can.

[Xyzzy]

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015...the-weak-keys/

[jasong]

Originally Posted by xilman

Or, indeed, any who drowned in someone else's vomit.

Sorry if this was stated already, but I really want that cd they mentioned in the Hackers movie, of songs written and sung by people who would later drown in their own vomit.

Off-topic:It used to be that history was written by the winners, but with Amazon Kindle, anybody can write a book and publish it. You can be a winner, a loser, alien from another planet, persecuted by the FBI with mind waves, literally anything.

[jasong]

Originally Posted by science_man_88

An algorithm can predict human behavior better than humans

I read that book, it's a minor classic. Forget the name of the book, but Isaac Asimov wrote it.

Not to spoil it, but the algorithm was just a bunch of psychologists trying to fix societal ills.

[jasong]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015...the-weak-keys/

Sorry for the triple post, I tend to respond to a bunch of stuff all at once, but...

I only ask this question because anyone with government clearance knows I'm too poor to be able to afford to do something like this, but how hard would it be to anonymously buy a high speed connection and attach a Linux box to it for the sole purpose of donating bandwidth to the torrenting community?
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off-topic:With the addition of the x.265 standard to the online community, it's dead easy to download decent looking video on any connection. BluRays are a bad joke once you realize you need less than a dollar's worth of spindle drive space to store almost perfect looking video.(spindle drives refers to what flash drives are slowly replacing)

I'm still shocked at how Hollywood is fighting the copyright war by strongarming people with lawsuits and FBI warnings that are only seen by people who buy their stuff legally. Don't they know Americans will live up or down to any standards you set for them? If they label us as criminals, then far be it from me to prove the Almighty Hollywood wrong.

I'm still waiting for the totally online version of the BBC player with either commercials or the same fee(tax) applied to Brits. Maybe they're into name-calling too, but I haven't seen it.

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by jasong

I read that book, it's a minor classic. Forget the name of the book, but Isaac Asimov wrote it.
Not to spoil it, but the algorithm was just a bunch of psychologists trying to fix societal ills.

"The End of Eternity"? one of my favorites, ever.

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by jasong

Don't they know Americans will live up or down to any standards you set for them?

Unfortunately, not only Americans...

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by LaurV

"The End of Eternity"? one of my favorites, ever.

I think he's referring to the Foundation series, specifically psychohistory and the First Foundation. There are some similarities, though.

[Xyzzy]

http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/...uting-beavers/

[jasong]

https://youtu.be/X9eunP3KpZQ?t=2m