Re: Zuck will spend most of that money, however, on a gigantic tax bill.

>50%?? Huh ??

I can't claim to be an expert in US tax law (who can, really?), but as far as I know, capital gains tax in the US is 15%, and I'm sure his well-paid army of accountants and lawyers will see to it that he's not paying more than that. State and local taxes are mostly sales taxes.

Re: Hold on . . .

and then how soon before refusing to provide your fingerprints is an arrestable offence?

Re: re Flat Earth

Discworld!!!

Re: @Mike Street (was: Anyone in the private sector who bought into Facebook at IPO ... )

In that case the 90% who knew it was overpriced are true idiots if they bought it hoping to sell on to even bigger idiots later on. If they were quite certain that the stock would drop from the initial valuation they should have sold it short.

I also thought that FB shares weren't worth the IPO price, but even then I wasn't THAT sure that I would bet a few $k on it... and I especially didn't think they would tank so fast so soon (actually the fact that they did tank so fast so soon shows that not a lot of people really believed the hype)

Re: Good luck with that

In many cases there's no practical purpose for changing anything, it's all cost and zero or minimum benefit. For example why go through the effort of (a) changing every single road speed limit sign in the US from miles to km (b) changing all US-made vehicle speedometers to show km/h, considering there are probably a huge number of US-made cars that have speedos only in mph and not in km/h (c) getting people used to the new system, especially since an old "50" will become a new "80", ie there will be a tendency for people to overspeed considerably if they misinterpret the sign.

The result will be a spike in speed-related accidents for a few years, which will gradually return to baseline (ie no improvement over pre-change that can be attributed to the change). It will be the same for volumes and weights of groceries etc. where there is a huge volume of things to be measured, and the measure only really matters within the US.

The only things that would benefit conversion to SI units are units used internationally, on a relatively small scale, and calculation-intensive metrics that would benefit having things divide neatly into tens and thousands rather than twelfths and sixteenths. So things like the space program, civil aviation, heavy industrial engineering

Re: Finally

" Well why not? The EU is calling World War II a "European Civil War". "

Well, it was until Japan and the US butted in

Re: Falklands

Hmmm, curious. A search on maps.google.com.ar for "las malvinas" doesn't identify the falklands, but instead returns a list of possible options, the top one of which is "Islas Falkland (Islas Malvinas)"

A search for "Golfo Pérsico" returns a red marker slap in the middle of the Persian Gulf, but with no label, so same as the English-language version.

Oh, and maps.google.fr can locate "la manche", but it's very clearly labelled "English Channel". I await President Hollande's official protest to Google... or he might decide to simply invade, last I heard, the UK had a shortage of carrier planes :)

Re: politically charged

Jeez, Google, it's called the Persian Gulf, just leave well enough alone.

I wonder if they were bowing to global-Zionist-banking-cartel pressure to remove all references to Iran, or to Muslim-Arab-Sharia-petro-terrorsists who want it renamed to Arabian Gulf

/sarcasm

Re: Grow a pair.

Surely any capital gains made on the IPO of a US company is automatically deemed to be US capital gains, and therefore taxable in the US irrespective of the nationality or country of residence of the person making the capital gains??

F-18, F35 B, C or Z, whatever... Both the UK gov and the article's author seem to be missing a very basic point. Who the hell is Britain going to war with in the foreseeable future that will require the use of an aircraft carrier anyway?? Britain is physically dead centre of NATO with the US on the Atlantic side, and all her European allies to the East and South. China, N Korea and Iran are half way around the world. Russia is reachable by land-based aircraft from all of Europe that's closer to it than the UK, and an aircraft carrier couldn't operate in the Arctic anyway.

So what's the aircraft carrier for?? War with a minor African country? Another Falklands?? The real reason is delusions of grandeur from an admittedly glorious past, and the need to feed the military-industrial beast

Re: Not that bad......

Volume moves as cube of radius, so double volume means radius at a factor of cube root of 2, approx 1.25 times Earth's, and surface gravity is proportional to mass (8 X) over teh square of radius (approx 1.5). So yes, right second time, 5g is about right.

And 'super-earth' (used here) or 'Earth-like' (seen elsewhere to describe for example Gliese system planets) to describe a planet?? In my book, 'super-earth' means like earth, but larger, and 'Earth-like' means 'Earth-like'.

For 'Earth-Like' I would expect at least a solid surface, a temperature range close to that seen on earth (maybe -50 to 50 C), surface gravity from 0.5-2G . So this doesn't even fit the most basic criteria. After all, I wouldn't call Venus 'Earth-like'

Re: @Dave 126

Emotions don't give a damn about statistics. If the number of people run over by computer-driven cars (per car-mile driven) is less than 10% the number of people run over by human-driven cars, there will still be an outcry, because people being run over by human-driven cars is a current, known, issue, while being run over by a computer-driven car is something new.

One of human's deepest emotional responses is (unfortunately) anger followed by desire for revenge (in modern society thinly disguised as 'justice'). If I run someone over, or I crash and my passenger dies, I can go to jail for manslaughter. Who goes to jail when a google-car kills someone? The programmer? They don't send my driving instructor to jail if I screw up (granted it's not an exact analogy) Also, there are whole teams of programmers on this thing. What about the project managers? Top executives at Google? (Yeah, right!).

I think the only way it would be solved is if the owner has ultimate responsibility (same as I would be legally responsible if my hypothetical dog hypothetically attacks someone). But then again, what if the 'owner' of the vehicle is a cab company or a trucking company??

This is ultimately not just about cars, what are the legal implication of (semi-)autonomous, independent actors that behave in a conscious manner but do not possess what we would define as consciousness??

Re: Official Climate Sceptic Rules

"And most relevant scientists agree that the A part is significant so most AGW sceptics are most probably wrong"

Yes... but the models that these scientists use as the basis for considering the A in AGW to be significant all minimise the effect of solar output, while this new study may show a mechanism by which even a small change in solar output could have larger climate effects. So the existing models should be updated with the new data.

Personally I think that most of the warming in the last century is human caused, but I can't look past the fact that pretty much 100% of the heat energy on Earth comes from the sun, so it's naive to believe that 100% of the change is coming from human factors and 0% from the sun, just as it is naive to believe the opposite. Updating the models will allow us to get a better handle on what the balance is. (and by the way, the article mentions dramatic temperature changes over short time periods, does not mention specifics. Is it half a degree, 1 degree, 5 degrees? Over how many years? I bet they would be in the research paper so why not put them in the article?)

One last VERY IMPORTANT thing - CONTROL. We have no control over solar output, at best we can (very roughly) predict possible future patterns based on past cycles. We CAN control CO2 emissions. And whether the planet is accelerating it's warming or turning to cooling, planet-wide energy usage will still accelerate, and the amount of fossil fuels is still finite. SO LETS START BUILDING MORE NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS, NOW!

Re: Hmm...

Besides the fact that FB doesn't have anything close to a revenue stream that would justify such a valuation, I would never put money in a company with the bastardised share structure set up in FB, Google (and quite a few new tech companies it seems ) where investors put in their money to get second-class non-voting shares and complete control of the company rests with the founders even after outside parties have poured in literally billions of their money.

With banks and financial institutions, shareholders have recently started to push back against the mega salaries and bonuses given to top management. They can do so because their investment carries voting power with it.

Re: You know what?

This: "Personally I want those rights to serve the goal of supporting the creator, not become a plaything of speculation, trade, legal fights, and so on"

is one of the most sensible things ever written on the subject. I would even go beyond "creator's life or 20 years, whichever is longer" , and just say "20 years, irrespective of creator's lifespan". If the creator dies young, his/her children/family can still be supported for a time span, if the creator lives a long life, he/she can't live on their laurels for a couple of early hits. Taking lifespan out of the equation also removes complications regarding corporations... for example if Disney produce an animated movie that is the work of thousands of people, the people working on it are typically paid a flat rate +bonuses for their work and have no rights on the final work, which rests with the company. Since legally, corporations have some of the rights of persons, a "lifelong" right on anything created by a corporation (eg movie studio) would in effect be a perpetual copyright.

I think legally it would also be a bugger to make copyrights inheritable but not sellable. So no problem, allow them to be bought and sold (maybe the creator wants to get a lump sum now instead of in bits over 20 years). As long as copyright expires in 20 years, no problem. I would also add a provision that every DRM system will have inbuilt a copyright expiration date. Tech companies can do all sorts of fancy things in DRM to suit copyright holders, so it's certainly technically possible.

Neelie Kroes

I love this woman.

She seems to be the only commissioner defending the rights of European Citizens against overreach by governments and corporations (she was also behind the slashing of roaming tariffs)

Re: iOpener

Post of the month!

Take a bow

Question

This question isn't exactly linked to this story, but it's climate-related so maybe one of my fellow commentards can enlighten me:

As far as I can make out, the global temperature record that predates direct measurement is worked out using proxies, and the most widely-quoted / referenced proxy that I have seen being used is ice-core records. Now, by definition, ice-core records can only be accurate for locations that have been consistently frozen for hundreds of thousands of years. So how can this proxy be extended to the whole globe? How can we calculate a global average temperature if we only measure the coldest points?

Many Thanks in advance

Re: Fantastic

and add in a bit of "Hostel" for good measure

Re: Indeed

"man forcing a woman to keep having sex would see screams of rape"

This WAS rape, by any definition of the word. First 3 times was consensual, the next 5 times (if my reading is correct, my German is a bit rusty) she was blackmailing him / holding him hostage in a locked apartment that he wanted to leave. Just because she wasn't holding a knife to his throat or a gun to his head doesn't make it any more consensual.

Not just terrorists

It's terrorists + any crime that could potentially carry a 3-year jail sentence... ie so that includes assault and robbery, as well as copyright infringement and hacking (last 2 have been redefined and extended to include a huge amount of trivial stuff being done online). It's practically almost any offence beyond speeding.

Also, am I reading this correctly ?? - the data includes anyone travelling to and from the EU (ie not limited to US-EU flights) and the US spooks can still get their hands on it??

Re: This is not "mind-controlled".

Let me start off by saying you're right about the bit about the eyes, I misread that part of your post, my bad. Now to get to the meat of the question....

You seem to be proposing that the only acceptable control method should be a third-person visual image ("imaging what you want the robot to do and the robot doing it"). I don't see why a specific visual frame of reference should be the only acceptable method of control. Why not a first-person visual reference (Imagining oneself to be turning left, which is actually the "Avatar" method)? Why not an internally voiced audio command (internally thinking the words "turn left, you damn robot!"). And indeed, why not imagine oneself controlling a joystick that is in turn controlling the robot? These are all valid internal mental representations for the desired outcome.

Indeed, the way the mind works, it's highly likely that the mind will automatically be correlating different representations and firing them simultaneously. For example as someone who has used a joystick to play video games, my knowledge that the (real or imagined) joystick is controlling a robot will automatically correlate with a mental image of the robot turning left if I am using the joystick to direct it left. Quite possibly I'm at the same time issuing verbal instructions (surely I'm not the only one who has ever talked to their video game characters even though I know it won't have any effect).

In my book, as long as the computer is scanning mental patterns, identifying a recognisable pattern and correctly performing an action based on that pattern, the researchers can rightly call it mind control. It might be mind-control v 1.0, or maybe even v0.1, but still mind control.

Re: Correct me if I'm wrong

Yes, the way I read it that's correct. Of course that's my opinion not proper legal advice, the language in the article is a bit mind-bogglingly legalese, why can't they just speak plain English?*

Another point that seemed to be there but I'm not sure because of the language... if I have a license AND I have the physical media then there should be no impediment to my selling both license AND physical media to a third party, since like this the third party has not made any unauthorised copy of the software.

*I bet it's perfectly possible for all laws and legal arguments to be made in plain English, and the only reason for using legalese jargon is the same as all jargon use everywhere - to exclude outsiders and create a de-facto cartel of insiders. The usual 'public' reasons given for using legalese instead of plain English is that English is ambiguous and legalese has very specific meanings and is more clear, however if that were true, then why are there still arguments over laws written in legalese? Because they are NOT that clear

Re: Solutions

College sports in the US is a racket. The athletes, who do all the work and provide all the show, are not allowed to be paid anything at all, not allowed to do any sponsorship contracts, not allowed to accept ANYTHING at all (athletes get busted for accepting a free meal that costs $50).

All the money goes to the ICAA and the colleges, who might actually spend a part of it on education but really a lot of it goes on sporting infrastructure for minor sports (it's only american football and basketball that really make money, the dozens of other sports are subsidised by the big two), and of course to pay for the big 2 sports themselves - while players get nothing, coaches have multi-million salaries and facilities are state of the art, (60,000 or 70,000 seater stadiums for american football).

There's also no real academic value in player scholarships. The original idea was that college athletes are still studying, and can have a 'civilian' career if they don't make the cut to sports pros, but in reality there is huge pressure from the colleges for teaching departments to overlook poor grades, and none of the athletes in the big 2 sports are learning anything at all, so the ones that don't make it are doubly screwed

Re: The good old days when a quick smak fixed 99% of the se problems.

No it's not OK to "clobber" children. A light, sharp, smack will do the job if a stern word has failed, and if it's not over-used.

Unless your dictionary has a different definition of "clobber"

Re: @voland

Can't believe all the downvotes for Voland.

I agree completely with some of the follow-up posts that the number 1 responsibility for educating the child lies with the parents, but teachers and principles can't just blame the parents for all misbehaviour and have no control at school.

Calling in the cops = renouncing their authority. Kids are smart, they pick up these cues really quickly. From now on they know that the teacher and principle are no longer the ultimate authority in the school and can be 'beaten'. I think it would have been far more resourceful for the principle to call in one of the kid's parents

Re: kettle calling pot

Western govs are hoist by their own petard here. It's clear that China has a near-monopoly on rare Earths not because they physically happen to be located only in China, but because the environmental corner-cutting allows China to extract them far far cheaper than is possible anywhere else.

The western (+ Korea/Japan) electronics makers want their rare-earths cheap and to hell with the pollution caused in China but they don't want to pollute their own back yards to dig it up, and they don't want the Chinese to clean up their act because prices would spike (except that they can't publicly say that, because they're pretending to be eco-friendly)

Re: This is not "mind-controlled".

"The day I can think "left", or imagine the robot turning left, and the robot does it, *that* will be mind-controlled"

erm.... according to the article, that's EXACTLY what the device is doing, nothing to do with using his eyes. Still a bit crude as yet, but it's a good start I reckon. Of course there needs to be some training involved so the computer can pick out what brain patterns mean 'turn left', which ones mean 'go forward'.....

....and which ones mean 'that undergraduate student is HOT, I love how she unwittingly reveals her cleavage when she bends over to adjust my headset'

Re: How about...

"As long as you can restore things back to normal when they're found innocent."

Agree 100%. I'm curious about how republicans can hold both the following views extremely strongly and above all, simultaneously:

a) government is inherently corrupt and inefficient and we should do everything possible to make government smaller and reduce governmental influence

and

b) i completely trust a government agency to investigate, solve and pass sentence for a crime, with absolutely no doubt that the convicted person was indeed guilty, and i trust my government so much that I'll allow it to kill people who they think are guilty of anything serious

Re: I smell a scapegoat

Was stupid of him to delete the stuff, he was basically 'toeing the party line' on the amount of oil leaking. If he had just said, "Yes, I knew at the time that the flow rate was over 15,000 and the cap wouldn't work, but Mr. Big-shot executive said go ahead anyway because we're pretending publicly the flow rate is 5,000" , then he would have got away with a rap on the knuckles and they'd have gone after Mr Big Shot.

Funnily, I suspect that Mr Big Shot's instructions to his underlings were voice-only, no records. Misplaced sense of loyalty is costing this guy dear

Windows ME ????

"Iran’s computing environments are a little unusual, in that there are no legitimate channels for directly supplying and maintaining standard operating systems and apps. This may result in greater [than] usual exposure to all kinds of exploits."

I would have thought that Iran would be the ideal place to use Linux on both server and desktop. You don't need any licenses, you're not dealing with the great satan, you can set up language availability for Farsi yourself without waiting for a supplier to do it, and you can look at the source code to make sure no foreign agency is injecting stuff you don't want in there. It's also (supposedly) pretty secure from viruses, worms etc.

Iran has some pretty bright people who could handle setting up a whole government-wide secure linux-based network, after all, they were capable of hacking a US drone to get it to land on their turf.

My suspicion is that, like in all authoritarian countries* , loyalty to the party line is held in higher regard than competence** , and the loyal-but-incompetent*** people running the show screwed up.

* Yes, this also happens all too often in democratic countries

** One reason why, despite all scaremongering to the contrary, they are nowhere near having a viable nuclear bomb

*** In my experience, competency seems to correlate quite highly with independent thought

Re: ""we just want people to invent their own stuff"

"Don't you know how long and hard their engineers struggled to perfect the rectangle?"

Not to mention the meticulous craftsmanship in rounding off the corners

Re: Well, this was inevitable

A bit over-simplified, but close enough to the truth. Stuff like fridges, TVs, cars, clothes etc used to last 10-20 years, then 5, then 3 and so on just to keep the never-ending cycle of selling stuff to people who already have a lot of stuff.

There's a limit to how crap things can be made so they fall apart just after the guarantee has expired, and most people have enough appliances, cars, clothes etc. There's also a huge mountain of old-ish but still quite serviceable stuff that people may have put away in storage but that they're now selling 2nd-hand to make ends meet while others look to buy in the 2nd-hand market because it's more affordable.

All things considered -0.5% isn't really all that bad overall, but behind that overall figure are companies who are doing very well thank you and sitting on their cash while many people are out of work or are being squeezed out of affording anything more than the basics

Re: It was obvious

I fail to understand how an economy that is behaving plus or minus 1% from the previous year is "fucked". This is all down to ridiculous expectations of a 5%+ growth a year every year, which is clearly a pipe dream unless you're so far behind to begin with that even a tiny absolute increase is a huge percentage increase (see Brazil, India, China...)

The reality is that the economy in the last 20 years in western nations has been artificially inflated by using cheap labour in other countries and built on debt that wasn't backed up by real value. -0.5% overall is nothing, you want to see a really fucked economy, look at Spain or Greece, not to mention Egypt.

Re: How about a easier prize

In that case, would the computer be given an incomprehensible, heavily-accented Indian voice, and identify itself as 'Bob'?