SoylentNews

The ‘Hillary for mayor’ story proves that we learn nothing

A fun story in WaPo.

Here's an interesting blog on xz vs lzip/bzip2/gzip and more:

http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/xz_inadequate.html

Hipsters Broke My Gaydar

Millennials ruin everything!

SoylentNews hack explores the seedy underworld of "flavor tripping". See this thread.

Before I started, I used a tongue scraper to clean my tongue. There was some anecdotal talk somewhere of that helping absorption. Probably a good idea anyway.

The effect didn't last very long... about 15 minutes, which is on the short end of the expected 15 minute to 2 hours duration. However there seemed to be a bit of a residual aftereffect where the lemon would still taste a little sweeter... just sour as well. It's hard to tell, and that's a good thing!

• Lemon: Right off the bat, it tastes like lemonade.
• Lime: Distinct limeade taste, as expected.
• Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar: Absolutely tolerable taste, very interesting. I thought of throwing several kinds of vinegar in my mouth but chickened out and settled on just Bragg. I like consuming lots of sour vinegar to begin with but mberry makes it easy.
• Low-calorie/Light Cranberry Juice Cocktail: Whatever edge it had was gone. Not too great of a taste. I decided to get this instead of lemonade/limeade or other juices since I had the actual fruits on hand.
• Sriracha sauce: Tastes a bit like Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce (basically the same as Frank's RedHot Sweet Chili sauce or other brands), but not quite as sweet. As if I needed an excuse to squirt sriracha sauce in my mouth.
• CVS Sour Jacks Watermelon candy: Tasted sweet and unremarkable. Since I've never tried this candy before, I'll have to have some in a couple of hours to judge how sour it really is.
• Dr. Pepper: Interesting results. It was opened yesterday so I didn't know how well the carbonation was maintained. It seemed to sweeten up and mute the flavors. Then when I tried it a few minutes later, I felt the acidity of the phosphoric acid and the carbonated taste much more clearly.
• Navel orange: Very subtle change if any at all, but it was one of the last things I tried.
• Strawberry popsicle: Tried it too late to judge any change. Also, if you're rushing to try things, a popsicle isn't the best thing to have (sherbet/sorbet would have been better).

Unfortunately, I forgot I had homemade lemon curd and lime curd in the fridge. That would have been perfect to try slathered on a ginger snap.

For roughly $1.50 per attempt per person, I'd say flavor tripping is well worth it.

Neat Trick!

Former Atheist Mark Zuckerberg Gets Religion

I guess having an enslaved robotic Morgan Freeman softly whispering into your ear can cause you to question things.

Uncertain Propulsion Breakthroughs?

Further into the article, they really trash the recent peer-reviewed paper for having several flaws.

Overview

Technical

(1) The experimental methods and resulting data indicate a possible new force-producing effect, but not yet satisfying the threshold of “extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims” – especially since this is a measurement of small effects.

(2) The propulsion physics explanations offered, which already assume that the measured force is real, are not sound.

(3) Experiments have been conducted on other anomalous forces, whose fidelity and implications merit comparable scrutiny, specifically Jim Woodward’s “Mach Effect Thruster.”

Implications

(1) If either the EmDrive or Mach Effect Thrusters are indeed genuine, then new physics is being discovered – the ramifications of which cannot be assessed until after those effects are sufficiently modeled. Even if it turns out that the effects are of minor utility, having new experimental approaches to explore unfinished physics would be valuable.

(2) Even if genuine, it is premature to assess the potential utility of these devices. Existing data only addresses some of the characteristics necessary to compare with other technologies. At this point, it is best to withhold judgment, either pro or con.

Pitfalls to Avoid

(1) The earlier repeated tactic, to attempt fast and cheap experimental tests, has turned out to be neither fast nor cheap. It’s been at least 14 years since the EmDrive first emerged (2002) and despite numerous tests, we still lack a definitive conclusion.

(2) In much the same way that thermal and chamber effects are obscuring the force measurements, our ability to reach accurate conclusions is impeded by our natural human behavior of jumping to conclusions, confirmation biases, sensationalism, and pedantic reflexes. This is part of the reality that also needs understanding so that we can separate those influences from the underlying physics.

Edit this journal.

Samsung's New Beauty Products Are Very Judgmental
Samsung Alexa/Echo vacuum
Ford Fusion Hybrid autonomous vehicle
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835
Samsung Unveils Quantum Dot Curved Monitors
Cars, robots expected to star at CES 2017
The Best of CES 2016: Where Are They Now?
CES 2017: Tech preview of Las Vegas's biggest launches
Microsoft Surface Pro 5 Outed By Manufacturing Partners For March Launch With 4K Display And Kaby Lake

A fun piece over at the Mirror that managed to reach near the top of Google's World news section.

It's Boxing Day!

Update: Malls Across U.S. Beef Up Security After Brawls

The same month that DICE Holdings announced they were selling slashdot, they also had a post asking for questions to ask Briana Wu in a subsequent slashdot interview. I wasn't the only person to ask why Wu was refusing to confirm or deny that she was a transsexual. Actually, I was more direct - Why do you refuse to admit you are a transsexual? Are you ashamed? And a few more questions, including how she can think it's not hypocritical to decry games depictions of women while her own game site has the characters hyper-sexualized, right down to camel-toe.

All gone.

Wouldn't have noticed except that today they posted some more click bait - Brina Wu To Run For Congress.

One poster asked why she hadn't answered the trans question, someone else claimed it hadn't been asked. Au contraire, and I was far from the only one to ask.

Slashdot can no longer benefit from the DMCA's safe harbor provisions for not censoring comments, since they can no longer claim they never censor comments.

I wonder if it happens here ... inquiring minds want to know.