bfrs

   1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1
   
   2      2      2      2      2      2      2      2      2      2   
   
   3       3       3       3       3       3       3       3       3  
   
   4        4        4        4        4        4        4        4   
   
   5         5         5         5         5         5         5      
   
   6          6          6          6          6          6          6
   
   7           7           7           7           7           7

BTW, the book which introduced RDS: "Foundations of Cyclopean Perception" by Bela Julesz is considered one of the most influential books in cognitive science. With just a computer, using no invasive microelectrodes and animal sacrifices, he proved a fantastic result...stereopsis (fusion of the individual images from each eye) occurs before object recognition!

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostereogram

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random-dot_stereogram

A few months back I got a stomach ulcer and before going to the doctor, I decided to do some research. I came to realize that the primary cause is not stress or excess spicy food, but a particular stomach bacteria, H. Pylori, going rogue and attacking the mucus lining of the stomach that protects underlying tissue from the strong acid [1]. For this discovery, Drs. Marshall and Warren were awarded the 2005 Nobel prize in medicine [2], as it meant that ulcers were curable with the use of suitable antibiotics.

However, my doctor (and good friend) insisted that there was no permanent cure for stomach ulcers and they could only be managed by taking acid reducing medication (Prilosec) everyday for as long as I lived. I couldn't help wondering if his information was corrupted by big pharma, who always want to keep you hooked onto some drug or the other. So, I had to use extra persuasion and tact to get him to prescribe antibiotics for H. Pylori elimination (and thus permanently curing the ulcer).

I'm a bit skeptical that big pharma's tentacles will NOT reach Watson's doctor successors [3].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptic_ulcer#History

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Phys...

[3] http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/watson_in_healthc...

To use your own example, true you might get better than half the regulars in basketball if you spent 1 hr a day at it, but you'd make exactly $0 being in the top 50th percentile of basketball players. You would be far better off if you had spent that 1 hr/day for a year on improving your coding skills further.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace%27s_demon

Won't Heisenberg's principle make this impossible?

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dawkins%20homeop...

* Controlled Fusion

My guess is that the politicians were sold on the unlimited energy that successful controlled fusion would provide.

As somebody once said: Any problem on Earth can be solved with the careful application of high explosives. The trick is not to be around when they go off.

That is very reminiscent of Nietzsche.

Also worth reading, when it comes to the question of to do or to not to do a PhD is: http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science

Current operating systems are like rudimentary souls, and any OS routinely uses these capabilities:

Rebooting <-> Reincarnation

Networking <-> Telepathy

USB devices <-> Extrasensory perception

Andy Tannenbaum's MINIX-3 explicitly calls rebooting as reincarnation.

Future AIs will have Thompson & Ritchie to thank for making flexible reincarnation possible for them.

If it needs a long sermon to proclaim it's art, it's probably bullshit [1]

Modern Art - A Skeptical View [2]

[1] http://www3.sympatico.ca/manideli/Artsp.htm

[2] http://www3.sympatico.ca/manideli/

The individual exists for the support and enjoyment of the state.

overtake this:

The state exists solely to facilitate the individual's pursuit of happiness.