Forgot your password?

Comment: Would incur billions in lawsuits in US (Score 1) 561

by burtosis (#33850052) Attached to: Google Secretly Tests Autonomous Cars In Traffic
Lets say thier algorithms are 1000 times better than a human driver at avoiding accidents, at least statistically. Given that in 2009 over 40,000 auto deaths occured and over 250k childred were injured (http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/statistics.html) that would translate into hundereds or thousands of multi-million dollar lawsuits against the navigation company per year. Not to mention the countless fender benders that the system would be responsible for. Even dumbasses running into the car at no fault to the navigation company will probably be dragged into court. You think you can code dumbassery avoidance into the car? They will build a better dumbass. You will see this technology in Japan and Germany well before the US simply due to the popular acceptance of these technologies as well as the legal ramifications. State of the art algorithms such as these are not nearly as good as a moderately competent driver under generalized circumstances - as a single example just put a google car on icy snowy roads and see how well its vision algorithm tracks the road or how well it's laser or sonic sensors work when fouled with snow.

Comment: Not suprising (Score 2, Informative) 205

by burtosis (#30448294) Attached to: Aussie Scientists Find Coconut-Carrying Octopus
On a trip to Florida, I found a neat clump of shells in shallow water. I picked it up and put it in a bucket along with some other shells thinking it was interesting. A few moments later I had a pile of shells and an octopus looking up at me angrily. So if it's smart enough to roll itself in shells, using it's suckers to keep them on, it’s not too surprising to me that these ones decided to use coconuts.

Funny thing is that split coconuts probably aren't too common unless people or animals split them.


Aussie Scientists Find Coconut-Carrying Octopus 205

Posted by timothy

Big Dipper "Star" Actually a Sextuplet System 88

Posted by kdawson
from the toil-and-trouble dept.

Comment: WMD not yet, but perhaps someday? (Score 1) 314

by burtosis (#30085902) Attached to: Micro-Black Holes Make Poor Planet Killers
I don't doubt the science behind the LHC or the scenarios presented. But I wonder if it is possible to make a device (probaby insanely expensive and massive like the LHC) whereby the MHB could be accurately force fed like a veal calf untill it hit a critical point (tons - ktons - Mtons) of mass and would be a worthy earth destroyer. Nuclear weapons just destroy a little area and make the world far less habitable. A good size black hole could
