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Comment Re:Key points about AI (Score 1) 236

Regarding #4 - it's not that taking over the world or killing all humans is the AI's end-goal. It's just removing variables from the scenario. Since humans are unpredictable and are likely to interfere with it, preventing it from accomplishing its actual goals, it's entirely logical to reach "destroy all humans" as an intermediate step.

Comment Re:Does This Make Sense? (Score 1) 318

In 2014, 39% of US Electricity came from coal, and that percentage is declining.

http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/...

Coal isn't competing well with natural gas, and they're closing down a large number of older coal plants, and aren't building new ones. Most new plants are natural gas or renewables.

http://about.bnef.com/content/...

That said, it's still easier to control emissions at a single source than at thousands.

Worms

Coup in Arrakis Capitol Leaves Region in Flux 113

Rube_Goldberg_Mentat writes: The power struggles between rival houses Atreides and Harkonnen have come to a T. It was reported earlier today that a coup led by Baron Vladimir Harkonnen was staged in the capitol of Arrakis. The House Atreides, which had only recently taken command of the planet and of the spice trade, is reported to have no survivors, though this is yet to be confirmed.Naysayers fear a collapse of the spice economy as a result of the violence. A r presentative from House Harkonnen has shared with the press that though times ahead may be rocky, "the spice will still flow."

Comment Correct! (Score 1) 148

I have a 2006 Prius and just recently we got a 2014 Prius V... And the '06 has a vastly superior navigation system. The '14 comes with crapware-loaded Entune and some of the worst user-interface decisions I've ever seen in a product.

I like that it shows me the traffic, but it'd be nice if they licensed Google Maps for the information so it'd be closer to accurate. And it'd also be nice if roads in cities weren't grey-on-grey with grey text. (Why are you showing me that I'm in a city by changing the background to grey anyway? Is the population of the current governmental entity really critical information when driving?)

It's also somewhat amusing - but also irritating - to see garbage like Bing or MovieTickets.com in the car screen, which work if you connect them to the internet on your smartphone... But if I have my smartphone in the car, wouldn't I check movie times on that, instead of a never-updated slow app whose interface was designed by someone that wears their pants on their head?

Earth

US Climate Report Says Global Warming Impact Already Severe 627

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: "Darryl Fears reports in the Washington Post on the U.S. government's newest national assessment of climate change. It says Americans are already feeling the effects of global warming. The assessment carves the nation into sections and examines the impacts: More sea-level rise, flooding, storm surge, precipitation and heat waves in the Northeast; frequent water shortages and hurricanes in the Southeast and Caribbean; more drought and wildfires in the Southwest. 'Residents of some coastal cities see their streets flood more regularly during storms and high tides. Inland cities near large rivers also experience more flooding, especially in the Midwest and Northeast. Insurance rates are rising in some vulnerable locations, and insurance is no longer available in others. Hotter and drier weather and earlier snow melt mean that wildfires in the West start earlier in the spring, last later into the fall, and burn more acreage. In Arctic Alaska, the summer sea ice that once protected the coasts has receded, and autumn storms now cause more erosion, threatening many communities with relocation.' The report concludes that over recent decades, climate science has advanced significantly and that increased scrutiny has led to increased certainty that we are now seeing impacts associated with human-induced climate change. 'What is new over the last decade is that we know with increasing certainty that climate change is happening now. While scientists continue to refine projections of the future, observations unequivocally show that climate is changing and that the warming of the past 50 years is primarily due to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases.'"

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