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Comment Re:The null hypothesis (Score 1) 654

There is something fundamentally wrong with this argument, but I've had to think about it for a minute to come up with a way to explain it.

There is no practical difference between throwing 6 dice together and having them all come up 6 and throwing a single die 6 times and having it come up 6 each time.
Ultimately you've got 6 independent die rolls and coming up with 6 on each. So the formula you were using with 2 dice and 3 dice would also apply to the 6 whether you threw them together or in sequence.

To put it another way, you are correct that for any single throw of the die, one has a 1 in 6 chance of getting a 6. To do that six time in a row is quite different. For instance, for the 6th throw of the die to count if it came up 6, every previous roll would have had to come up 6 but there were 5 chances of 5 in 6 odds against that happening.

Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings Online To Go Free-To-Play 138

darkwing_bmf sends word of Turbine's announcement that Lord of the Rings Online will become a free-to-play game this fall. 'The move is another validation of the free-to-play business model, where gamers can play for free and pay real money for virtual goods such as better weapons or decorative gear for their game characters. The business model has been popular in Asia but only recently took off in the US. This move shows the pressure is building on game publishers to shift to the new business model or face declining audiences.' According to a post on the official website, LotRO's micro-transaction system will be "very similar" to how Turbine's DDO store works, and current subscribers will maintain all of their privileges.

Comment Re:Maybe they should simplify English (Score 1) 1343

Although I've long amused myself by pointing out the 'Ghoti' word, it becomes less entertaining when I really stop to think about it.

'gh' - While it's true that this particular letter combination can sound like an 'f' when it falls at the end of some words and is silent other times, I can't think of an example where it would ever sound like that at the beginning of the word. For example, the word 'ghost' does not start with an 'f' sound.
'o' - The word 'women' is unusual in itself, in a couple of places, and therefore shouldn't be used as an example of standard vowel usage.
'ti' - The 'sh' sound is applied here in the context of all the French words English has adopted that end in 'tion' or in words like 'initiate.' In either case there's another vowel after the 'ti' and one wouldn't expect it to have the 'sh' sound at the end of a word.

Obviously English has its exceptions or we wouldn't even be having this discussion, but there are general rules of thumb about how words and letters within words will be pronounced in context.

Image

Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project 687

garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"
Image

Best Man Rigs Newlyweds' Bed To Tweet During Sex 272

When an UK man was asked to be the best man at a friend's wedding he agreed that he would not pull any pranks before or during the ceremony. Now the groom wishes he had extended the agreement to after the blessed occasion as well. The best man snuck into the newlyweds' house while they were away on their honeymoon and placed a pressure-sensitive device under their mattress. The device now automatically tweets when the couple have sex. The updates include the length of activity and how vigorous the act was on a scale of 1-10.

Comment Re:Taurus XL (Score 1) 325

That would be funny if the pre-discontinued Ford Taurus wasn't such a damned good car.
What the marketing folks at Ford thought by discontinuing it and then bringing it back as the rebranded Five Hundred, I'll never know.
It's right up there with naming a new Lincoln the Zepher and that stupid looking cheese slicer grill Ford's been all enamored with lately.

I guess my joke involving Ford Taurus vs. the Rocket would go more along the lines that they should have tried the Ford instead.

Comment Re:Actually, no (Score 1) 1131

checks for a USB face-stabbing peripheral

Dammit, I KNEW buying that USB face-stabbing peripheral was a mistake, but it was on sale!

Ah, the Circuit City going out of business sale. You've been there too?

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