rflrob

60 ms·

511.
by rflrob 15y ago
Might not an effective approach be the opposite of this vaccine? Rather than trying to down-modulate the effects of (addictive substance here), if you instead up-modulate undesirable effects, then even a small dose would have less pleasur
512.
by rflrob 15y ago
Both of your estimates actually seem fairly low. In biology, a single PhD student typically costs on the order of $50k/year in terms of stipend and tuition support, and will typically be an author on fewer papers than the number of years th
513.
by rflrob 15y ago
In one paragraph, the limit seems to be two. That said, having gone to another similar school, it is a weird place. Not bad, necessarily; quite enjoyable, once you learn to accept the quirks. But certainly weird. And to the extent that th
514.
by rflrob 15y ago
This quote seems to fall victim to the Naturalistic fallacy. That which is natural is not necessarily good, and that which is good is not necessarily natural. Whether or not patents have an overall positive effect is reasonable to debate,
515.
Project Photofly: Create 3D models from photographs using the web. (labs.autodesk.com)
3 points by rflrob 15y ago|0 comments
516.
by rflrob 15y ago
I can understand the argument that you don't want the complexities of dealing with 50 different state taxes to burden the little guy, but what would stop the US Congress from passing legislation that requires any company doing inter-state b
517.
by rflrob 15y ago
Even cooler would be to have each person (explicitly or implicitly) set other people's vote importance. I can imagine a complicated system wherein voting cliques are detected, and used to feed back into the rankings of what papers show up
518.
Too many tasks: top academic scientists are administrators(nature.com)
5 points by rflrob 15y ago|1 comments
519.
by rflrob 15y ago
Professors have always complained about teaching undergrads getting in the way of doing research. At most research universities (which tend to draw more famous professors), a professor's major source of financial support is from grants to d
520.
by rflrob 15y ago
The question they don't address is what the relative cost of these thermoelectric cells is. I'll grant that they're still in prototype phase, but some mention of the estimates of cost would be nice. I, for one, have no idea how much bismut
521.
by rflrob 15y ago
The first two definitely seem like things that one could easily imagine a kit for: include primers for the species of interest, a bit of positive control, and perhaps even the Taq and other reagents you'd need. Then, the user could just co
522.
by rflrob 15y ago
Fortunately, primers are relatively cheap, typically under $0.30/base, so for two 20bp primers, you may end up paying as much for shipping as for the synthesis itself. These days, it's also pretty rare that you won't know the complete genom
523.
by rflrob 15y ago
Where do most programmers get this exposure to best practices like version control, unit testing, etc? I took a few early-mid level CS classes, and there was a relatively cursory emphasis on readable code, there was barely any on any of the
524.
by rflrob 15y ago
I have all of my code on github under a CRAPL license [1]. It assumes a certain amount of good-faith from others, but I feel that if you're worrying about getting scooped, your problem isn't ambitious enough. Luckily, my adviser agrees, an
525.
Sex Problems at Google+(blogs.forbes.com)
8 points by rflrob 15y ago|3 comments
526.
by rflrob 15y ago
My favorite explanation of it is that if there is a distribution to the numbers, then that distribution should hold no matter what base you're working in (for natural things, after all, there's nothing special about base 10), and Benfords l
527.
by rflrob 15y ago
And where do you need to file taxes?
528.
by rflrob 15y ago
Maybe, but if the numbers really are so low for a relatively constrained topic like the 500 year history of one nation, expanding the scope to the entirety of human history seems like it's going to have even less impact.
529.
by rflrob 15y ago
>This week, the Department of Education released the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which found that only 12% of high-school seniors have a firm grasp of our nation's history. And consider: Just 2% of those students u
530.
by rflrob 15y ago
Pulse width modulation (PWM) is a pretty common technique. This article seems to be more about measuring the actual waveform Apple uses. It even says that the PWM used in the original introduced artifacts into the measured waveform.
531.
by rflrob 15y ago
>6) Make it OK to use wireless & electronic devices during all times of the flight (even takeoff/landing). some electronics that transmit I can understand why they don't want them in use during the two most dangerous portions of the
532.
by rflrob 15y ago
It's close, depending on what you mean by size. Looking at the Pentagon diagram on wikipedia and using the above estimates of 1100-1200 feet for the Mothership, it's about comparable in diameter. I'm fairly sure the Pentagon rings are thick
533.
by rflrob 15y ago
I wish they had more closeups of the material. How does it fit together? Is it like chain mail, but made from plastic?
534.
by rflrob 15y ago
Font loops, at least according to the rules (ignoring italics and parens).
535.
On Snuggies and Business Models(jonathancoulton.com)
3 points by rflrob 15y ago|0 comments
536.
by rflrob 15y ago
It's up behind a paywall (probably... with my university connection I'm never sure what has it and what doesn't) here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7310/full/nature0... . If anybody is more mathematically sophisticated than
537.
by rflrob 15y ago
I think what rcthompson was asking is why can't both kin altruism and group altruism exist as primary causes? If there's a genetic (as opposed to memetic) basis, it's conceivable* that there is a single gene that, if mutated, would cause in
538.
by rflrob 15y ago
This video would be a lot stronger if they had only 1 or 2 academics out of the dozen or so people, rather than the opposite ratio.
539.
by rflrob 15y ago
I'm willing to believe hardware will be a big thing again soon: the transition of 3d printers and scanners from industry to hobbiest suggests there's room for even broader consumerization. Cory Doctorow's Makers is a compelling vision of
540.
by rflrob 15y ago
Regardless of where it actually stands in their ToS, I suspect that even if they wanted to start enforcing it (which they seem not to want to do based on the article), some group like the EFF would be pretty quick to mount a court challen

More ›