The Lounge

I thought this was interesting: crazy Singularity futurist Ray Kurzweil has accepted a bet from some angel investor I've never heard of: http://www.longbets.org/1 The bet is simple: will a computer pass the Turing Test by 2029? What do you think? I think it's entirely possible, but when you start talking about near-term hard dates like 20 years in the future it seems like little more than a guess. If they changed the betting window 50 years (i.e. 2059), then my answer would be a definitive yes. Note that this is more than just a friendly wager. If the angel investor wins, Kurzweil will donate $20,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. If Kurzwei…

Hi there Just wanting to know what the tiny lights are that I see during daylight hours, not looking up at the sun or anything, but they zoom around right before my eyes without interfering with my vision. If I allow my gaze to become unfocused they appear more brilliantly and are really quite pretty. I am not a science person so layman terms would be great Thanks in advance

Is SFN too big to fail? Discuss.

Check this experiment we put on youtube! Please pass on!

Martin had posted a bit about mind-controlling wasps and zombie spiders here a few years ago. Interesting stuff. But I'd like to expand on this scenario, as it's possibly only the beginning of a larger one. All the time we've been focused on preparing against human zombies (and on Iraq)....a new threat has brewed, and we might now be encountering an unforseen kind of zombie: little buggers craving our flesh and likewise transforming us into mindless creature versions of themselves. Yes, we've been distracted, and thus haven't kept much of an eye on the (real) ball. Now two questions face us: are we screwed, or was there no ball to keep an eye on in the…

Many of us here are forum frequenters around "da internets". I thought it might be fun to use this thread to share some of our favorite graphics that we've run across in conversations elsewhere. Anybody have any fun ones to share? Here's a lil' one just to get us started (can't remember where I found it):

I suspect I have a problem with my house's electrical infrastructure, but it's possible that the problem is external, with the utility company. Any advice I can get would be appreciated, especially regarding long-term monitoring and what kinds of technical details I should read up on. On a regular basis some of the equipment in my house complains of overvoltage. Specifically, the UPSs in my computer room (my working office) and on the home theater equipment. I also used to have a Panamax line conditioner on the home theater equipment and it used to complain about overvoltage as well. I've widened the tolerance on the UPSs to a whopping 88 to 142 VAC, but it does…

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=7708616&page=1 Interesting. I wonder if they'll be able to effectively enforce this.

So i recently was listening to a podcast by uhh yaa dude about nicolas cage and his vast amounts of property! That lucky B@$%$#% has 30 houses all over the world!!! No matter where he is he can get drunk and sleep in his own bed!! But this doesnt make up for the fact that his movies suck, the knowing was so boring that instead of watchin it, i planned the best way to escape from the theatre incase of a terorist attach (which is very unlikely due to the fact that its a movie theatre and its in nowhere idaho!) anyways.... My point being is..."do you think its totally fair for crappy actors with receading hair lines *cough nicolas cage cough* to make enough money to …

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1096959/Mystery-century-old-Swiss-watch-discovered-ancient-tomb-sealed-400-years.html Okay, so how does a 100 year old Swiss watch finish up in an unopened 400 year old tomb? The best guess I've seen is that it was deposited by some sort of animal, a rat or some such. Still........... I love the outre.

hey guys i saw this video on youtube: if you are having trouble loading it it basically says that you can unlock a car by making a hole in tennis ball, lining up the hole with the lock and pressing really hard. i've read comments and seen videos and some people say it doesn't work, some people say you have to do it right and some people say it only works with certain cars. does anyone know the answer to whetherit is completely fake or works on certain cars or whatever? because it seems a little unlikely to me but so many people say its true:confused:

I just found out about 3 hours ago that my wife is Pregnant, I`m gunna be a Daddy again how cool it that!

So, I set up my own little forum. Someone logged in and asked me a question. I told them they could find the answer on wikipedia. I then did a dismissive about face and walked off with some friends to a cafe where we had a nasally snort at the expense of "new money". My reply was followed by a flame, saying a guy who would bother to have a forum, or be on a forum for the purpose of answering questions, only to say, "go to wiki" is a major league, galactic class d--shmaster of Frank Burns proportions. Can you believe that!?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30810514/ I can't think of ANY car on the market that gets that many MPG right now. Except maybe hybrids. I'm really concerned about the environment and I'm about as liberal as they get, but is this even possible?

I just stumbled across an online test to show where you fall in the autism spectrum. I got a 33 which is well above the average male(17) and just below the average person with Asperger's Syndrome(35). How'd ya'll do?

So recently, a neighbor's tree blew down and fell onto our fence on the south side of our farm. We found out about it late the next day as we went and checked to see if the fences were ok (as we do after every storm). They didn't call to inform us, nor did they offer even the slightest bit of help with removal of the tree. Legally, we had to remove the tree as it fell on our land. Now, I understand that not everyone can use a chainsaw without getting it stuck, nor do most people know how to properly hitch things to a truck, but anybody can throw limbs and branches out of the way. So, my question to you all is: Would you have helped us move the tree? I hope my po…

This made me laugh. So true:

What type of pen does Nash use when he is writing on the windows throughout the movie? Thanks.

Hi everyone, I'm bored so I just thought I would say so!!! haha:D

Yep, the world will end in 2012 and i have concrete(well plastic actually) proof! mankind was not meant to harness this kind of power, surely we will destroy ourselves and the world in the upcoming spork wars. I for one welcome our new utensil overlords and hope that i can serve them in ways which do not require them to end my life. make the most of the last few earthly years you have.

Nowadays on news we hear about the Iraqi War, swine flu, murders, etc. However we rarely hear about the catastrophe of nuclear weapons. With as many as 30,000 nuclear bombs in the world, how could we sit back and rest? About 30% of nuclear weapons in the world are possessed by the United States. Those numbers must be decreased promptly as possible. Our President Barack Obama has said the following: “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” I believe that the United States should take an action immediately and lead the world. Unfortunately our ancestors are th…

could you explain to me the qualities of carbon nanotubes/

There's been a lot of media attention recently about Jenny McCarthy appearing on Oprah to spread pseudoscience about vaccines to the nation. Well, Amanda Peet has come out against her: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AutismNews/Story?id=5483159&page=1 ...and well, she's so rational and articulate, not to mention well-researched! When the interviewer asks for her opinion on a complex scientific matter, she says "don't ask me, ask the experts!". There's an incredibly lulzy scene with Jenny McCarthy where she cites some numbers (which Peet at least claims are wrong) and then *bam* correlation = causation! I can understand McCarthy's frustration with having an…

According to the article below, 20% of US households now have only cell phones and no "land line". The rate of disconnection has apparently increased, possibly spurred by household cost-cutting reflecting the current economic crisis. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hy364yHuEwLK2alU6lD7DOoYhWtgD98122LO1 I was just curious how many folks here have cut their land lines, or perhaps never had them in the first place.

is it possible to record a set of math equations and turn it to brain waves and imprint it to the brain? i know this might sound crazy but i thought at least if you can't turn it into like sound that the brain can just pick up, can you maybe listen to like something for like a month and after your brain just automatically picks up the information when your sleeping, with a set of headphones. Sorry if this sounds totally crazy hehe i like to think outside of the box.. so inputs on this would be great ?..