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Comment: Re:Intelligence isn't always advantageous (Score 1) 83

by penguinoid (#47440745) Attached to: Chimpanzee Intelligence Largely Determined By Genetics

Reproduction in intelligent creatures has always been a hack from lower systems. Very few intelligent creatures have as their mind's objective to reproduce as much as possible, and increasing intelligence means it's that much easier to find loopholes in the lower systems, or exert self-control over them. It probably isn't a simple thing to set as the intelligent creature's objective to propagate its genes, with the requisite math (relatives share your genes to some extent), and the proper mate selection criteria, many of which aren't conscious nor obvious (you probably aren't aware of comparing your potential mate's major histocompatibility complex to your own). I suspect a mind sufficiently advanced to understand all this would be hard to hack to a different objective without a big reduction in intelligence.

Comment: Re:Subject bait (Score 2) 205

by istartedi (#47438705) Attached to: A Skeptical View of Israel's Iron Dome Rocket Defense System

I can't help but picture a sign on the door at the exit of an airport in Israel. It reads "Thank-you for not stirring up ancient inter-tribal conflict".

I think you're post will be as effective as such a hypothetical sign; but thanks for trying. X --+ (Don Quixote's lance and a windmill).

Comment: Life on Mars (Score 4, Insightful) 73

by penguinoid (#47437801) Attached to: Mars (One) Needs Payloads




Comment: Re:Why is this news? (Score 1) 408

by istartedi (#47435933) Attached to: The First Person Ever To Die In a Tesla Is a Guy Who Stole One

dead red laws

I see Virginia is listed. I wish there had been such a thing back in the 80s. I sat for what seemed like 5 minutes on rt. 50, waiting for a left turn arrow. It was mid-day so there was very little traffic (it's a parking lot during rush). I had at least 1/4 mile line of sight, maybe more. I honestly thought the signal was broken, and that's what I told the cop who was either behind me or camped under a tree where I didn't see him. There was no arguing on the spot, and it's the only time I ever went to traffic court, where the excuse didn't fly either. But hey, at least the 70 year old half-blind lady who caused an accident got to keep their license. I learned a lot of lessons that day.

To this day, I also wonder if that cop was dicking with the signals to make his quota.

Comment: No one cares, so why does it matter? (Score 5, Insightful) 266

by l0ungeb0y (#47433341) Attached to: William Binney: NSA Records and Stores 80% of All US Audio Calls

Comment: Dubai will love this (Score 1) 159

by l0ungeb0y (#47430765) Attached to: Hair-Raising Technique Detects Drugs, Explosives On Human Body
In Dubai, they already arrest and convict people if they find race amounts of marijuana on the soles of their shoes, I can only imagine they will be among the first to implement these detectors at their airport so they can have fun arresting even more infidels who come to visit their dystopian tourist trap.

Comment: Because Nothing Bad Ever Happens (Score 5, Insightful) 107

by l0ungeb0y (#47430735) Attached to: Google's Experimental Newsroom Avoids Negative Headlines

Comment: Business search sadly broken (Score 1) 131

by istartedi (#47427077) Attached to: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business

Business search is sadly broken in many ways. Whenever I google for a service that I actually need, there are dozens upon dozens of sites at the top of the results. No doubt they're all SEO'd there. When you follow the links, what do you get? A boiler-plate script along the lines of $foo is an experienced contractor in $bar who serves the $locality area. In fact, he does nothing of the sort if he even exists.

The surveillatizing industry does a fantastic job of tracking us and shoving shit-ads at us for stuff we don't want.

And yet, when I'm searching for a service that I ACTUALLY WANT TO PAY FOR, I have to deal with all this dreck.

I figure it must be click-bait, since I've clicked on it because it's misleading. I have a couple ad-blocking methods running concurrently, so I almost never see 3rd party ads there; but I can't imagine what other motive there would be to provide absolutely useless boilerplate like that.

BTW, I guess you could extend this out even further to say that many things other than searching for a business are broken by click-baiters.

Take any question, really. "Who won the 1950 World Series". And although I haven't tested this yet, I'm willing to wager somebody has a site out there that will tell you something like, "The 1950 World Series is available on eBay. Click here to learn more about 1950 World Series products, etc..."

The AI that does this shit is usually pretty smart, but sometimes you get gems like, "The best cleaning products for your World Series".
