Forums: Random Walk Hypothesis

It was the first time the competition was conducted in San Francisco and there was bone-chilling water temperatures along with the usual Bay area wind. But just as surfer Dusty Payne of Hawaii braved the cold to ride a wave, a SHARK (flash scary shark with loud music or sound effect) appeared in the water and SCARED THE DAYLIGHTS out of Dusy who described the sight as quote, "the biggest fin I've ever seen in my life coming at me. I've seen dolphins and it wasn't a dolphin." unquote. So, not only did Dusty lose it, but he also lost...

A gigantic python snake in Florida ate a 76-pound adult deer. The 16 foot long Burmese python was one of the largest pythons discovered to date in the sunshine state. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission’s exotic species coordinator Scott Hardin, if these huge snakes aren’t killed, they could migrate northward. A government sanctioned shotgun blast stopped this snake from its potential journey to Atlanta or the Carolinas. And just how any inches around did the beast’s belly have to measure in order to covert a 76 pound Bambi into breakfast? 44 inches. Oh, and what is the average...

The awful launch week for the over-hyped, expected bestseller The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, by controversial author Joe McGinniss, just got worse. Much worse. After a week of universally scathing pans from the reflexively anti-Palin establishment media, McGinniss now faces the fight of his literary life: the accusation that he seems to have knowingly submitted a book to his publisher, Crown/Random House, that was filled with unproved “tawdry gossip” and rumors that lacked “factual evidence.”

Should cops be allowed to randomly scan thousands of license plates? Yes, if it takes criminals off the road No, enough with Big Brother already Let’s give it time to work then see

1. The English language too often falls short of what I want to express; perhaps I need to learn more Russian… 2. Recently, President Obama referred to the Democratic thumping at the polls, saying: “Making an argument that people can understand, I think that we haven’t always been successful at that. And I take personal responsibility for that. And it’s something that I’ve got to examine carefully … as I go forward.” So the end state isn’t the problem Americans have with his agenda, it’s his phrasing of that end state. I suppose we’re all just too dumb to understand…...

Acin and a colleague cobbled together ytterbium atoms to produce “true” randomness, by which they mean the results of an electron being “up” or “down” cannot be predicted skillfully using any information. In their experiment, the information on the ytterbium atoms’ quantum (which means discrete!) state is not humanly accessible, so we can never do better than always guessing “up”. Brain teaser for advanced readers. Acin’s experiment generates an “up” or “down”, each occurring half the time unpredictably. Why is guessing “up” every time better than switching guesses between “up” and “dow

Randomized controlled trials are supposed to be the gold standard of experimental research. This is true. But it would be just as true if we said “controlled trials” without the “randomized.” “Randomness” is not needed. “Random” trials are even the opposite of what we desire. Which is information and evidence. Since “randomness” means “unknown”, adding randomness decreases information. There is just one reason, which I’ll reveal later, why “randomness” is important. Suppose you’re designing a marketing, finance, or drug trial: anything where you have “treatments” to compare. Since everybody understands drugs trials, we’ll use that. A controlled study splits a...

However, when I heard that the Conservative government was considering following the lead of countries like Australia by instituting a form of 'random' breathalyser tests, I had so voice my opposition. With all due respect to those fine folks at MADD, there is a danger here that the balance of personal liberty and community safety will be knocked off kilter.

Introduction The story first hit in last week on the Slovakian tech site DSL.sk.  Since I am not linguistically equipped to follow the Slovakian tech scene, I didn’t hear about the story until it was brought up in English on TechCrunch.  The gist of these reports is this: DSL.sk did a test of the “ballot” screen at www.browserchoice.eu, used in Microsoft Windows 7 to prompt the user to install a browser.  It was a Microsoft concession to the EU, to provide a randomized ballot screen for users to select a browser.  However, the DSL.sk test suggested that the ordering of...

NASCAR will test drivers for performance-enhancing drugs next month under a tougher policy that also bans using illegal drugs and abusing prescription medications. NASCAR likely will test drivers the third week of January, and crew members must submit results from an approved lab by Jan. 16, according to documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press