Weird News

[glatt]

[footfootfoot]

Last year I did a lot of research into deer color vision, it's quite comlpex, actually. There are some programs for web designers that approximate the different types of human color blindness that allow you to test your web colors to see how they will appear to a color blind person.
One is called Visicheck the other is ColorOracle

I'lll look around for some photos and graphs I downloaded. In the meantime, here is a good article.

[Lamplighter]

Saturday's Powerball jackpot now a record $600 million

Now tell me:Someone has to win it, it might as well be...

[Sundae]

Euromillions last night was £54m ($83m).
I haven't checked the results yet. It's fun to dream a little longer.

I have my house and car picked out already.

[richlevy]

Well, I did give you all of the luck from that penny I found (heads side up). Considering that the universe already owes you some good luck, that should put you over the top.

Good times are coming.

[tw]

Lotteries are just another way to tax those naive enough to want to pay more taxes.

[Ocean's Edge]

and stock brokers are just bookies in better suits
and insurance companies are just glorified casinos...

everything in life is a gamble in one way or another - at least it's voluntary

[ZenGum]

As an investment, lotteries deliver negative return.

As a form of consumption, they entitle you to have daydreams about suddenly becoming really rich.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by richlevy

Well, I did give you all of the luck from that penny I found (heads side up). Considering that the universe already owes you some good luck, that should put you over the top.

Good times are coming.

Thanks hon! In truth good times are already here when someone is kind enough to call me and give me their luck.

Originally Posted by ZenGum

As a form of consumption, they entitle you to have daydreams about suddenly becoming really rich.

You're right. And it's better to spend £2 on daydreams than two cans of cider.

[ZenGum]

In its entirety from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-3...-visit/4723132

For the second time in a month, a sandwich has been thrown towards the Prime Minister during a visit to a school.

A salami sandwich was launched towards Julia Gillard as she visited the Lyneham High School in Canberra this morning.

Ms Gillard was visiting the school to announce that the ACT had decided to sign up to the Government's Gonski education reforms.

Ms Gillard has laughed the incident off, saying the student who threw the sandwich must have thought she was hungry.

Earlier this month, a student in Brisbane was suspended when he was blamed for throwing a vegemite sandwich at the Prime Minister.

The ACT Education and Training Directorate says the school is currently looking into today's incident and is speaking to the student involved.

How can it be wrong to throw a vegemite sanger at the PM? That should be a constitutional right!

No-one is at all worked up about this. Being disrespectful to authority figures is a national tradition.

[glatt]

That's awesome. I love you Aussies.

[footfootfoot]

So is Julia the antipodal analogue of Thatcher?

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Maybe this belongs in the "You know you are old" thread
... but I find this completely weird and insane.
California Legalizes Self-Driving Cars
<snip>

Today, this was in the PC World...

US road safety agency issues policy on driverless cars

Self-driving vehicle technology is not yet at a stage that
it can be authorized for use by the public for general driving,
according to a U.S. Department of Transportation recommendation to state governments.

If a state decides to permit operation of self-driving vehicles other than for testing,
at a minimum it should require that a person licensed to drive self-driving vehicles
should be seated in the driver's seat, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
said in a preliminary statement of policy on automated vehicles released Thursday.

The licensed driver should "be available at all times in order to operate
the vehicle in situations in which the automated technology is not able
to safely control the vehicle," it said.

<snip>

As they did when the first automobiles were introduced to the horse-drawn carriage age,
they should also require an adult on-foot carrying a red flag and a lighted lantern
to precede each driver-less car at all times.

.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

... they should also require an adult on-foot carrying a red flag and a lighted lantern to precede each driver-less car at all times.

Meanwhile, over the past decade, Google already has driven these automated cars for almost one-half million miles. But only in states that permit innovation and the creation of jobs - CA, NV, and FL.

DARPA's Grand Challenge in 2004 and 2007 should be known to all. Since (if I recall) a Federal law required half the military convoy type vehicles to be autonomous long before 2020.

[Lamplighter]

My latest post above was a feeble attempt at humor. But more to the point...

How many times do drivers demonstrate their intent or courtesy
by interior hand-signals to another driver ? e.g., "you go first"
It's one of the reasons cited for not allowing darkened front windshields.

If a "licensed person" is required to be in the driver's seat and ready to take over.
What's the point of a driver-less car ?

For free-way driving, maybe... and especially on long, uninterrupted trips.
But as someone who thinks some basic decisions were wrong back
when we allowed train transportation to wither in favor of cross-country trucking,
I think car+passenger transport trains running on tracks along side our existing freeways
would be more economical, faster and safer than Google/GM/etc's driver-less cars "just because they can".

ETA: The insurance companies will have a ball figuring out who
is responsible, and who will pay, for accidents that are bound to happen
Alert to Programing Engineers: Get your liability insurance now.