Hard Cases Make Bad Algorithms, a Prologue
Some people find the answers to life’s impossible question in the Bible. For the rest of us, there’s Star Trek.
by David Ryan · December 3, 2012
Some people find the answers to life’s impossible question in the Bible. For the rest of us, there’s Star Trek.
David Ryan
David Ryan is a boat builder and USCG licensed master captain. He is the owner of Sailing Montauk and skipper of Montauk''s charter sailing catamaran MON TIKI You can follow him on Twitter @CaptDavidRyan
October 26, 2009
February 7, 2017
January 29, 2015
From CNN Business:
New York (CNN Business)Sheldon Adelson, the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands and a major donor to Republican politicians, died late Monday following complications related to his cancer treatment, his company said. He was 87.
Adelson took a leave of absence from Sands last week to resume treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which his aides first disclosed in late February 2019.
(Featured image is "Some birds hanging out at the Sands Casino in Atlantic City" by iirraa is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Comment →In the wake of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by scores of President Trump’s supporters, a lone researcher began an effort to catalogue the posts of social media users across Parler, a platform founded to provide conservative users a safe haven for uninhibited “free speech” — but which ultimately devolved into a hotbed of far-right conspiracy theories, unchecked racism, and death threats aimed at prominent politicians.
The researcher, who asked to be referred to by their Twitter handle, @donk_enby, began with the goal of archiving every post from January 6, the day of the Capitol riot; what she called a bevy of “very incriminating” evidence. According to the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, among others, Parler is one of a number of apps used by the insurrections to coordinate their breach of the Capitol, in a plan to overturn the 2020 election results and keep Donald Trump in power.
(Featured image is "A radio tracking device on a Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) at the Cotswold Falconry Centre" by Anguskirk and is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Comment →From Twitter Safety:
After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021
(Featured image is "Free Bird" by Ennev and is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Comment →From DFW's CBS:
DALLAS, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – Chief Judge Barbara Lynn of the Northern District of Texas has reversed a previous ruling of the Court that had dismissed all claims against the City of Dallas in the murder of Botham Jean.
The federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Dallas is now allowed to proceed once an amended lawsuit is filed.
We discussed Amber Guyger getting indicted here.
We discussed her trial here.
(Featured image is Botham Jean from The Botham Jean Foundation/Facebook)
Comment →January 18, 2021
Game of Thrones: Little People, Big World
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Game of Thrones: Little People, Big World
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Sunday Morning: “Swann’s Way/ Swann in Love” by Marcel Proust (Pt 2)
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One of the Saddest Sights In The World
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Yann’s Hot Dog Stand, Chocolate Milk, and Hometown Tradition
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Saturday Morning Gaming: Guacamelee!
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Saturday Spins: Cowboy Junkies The Trinity Session
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Danny In The Presence of Danger
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It’s Not Just About A Speech: Impeachment and President Trump
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Them’s Fightin’ Words: The First Amendment and Incitement
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January 6th: A Layman’s Post About Group Behavior
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I Love My Country, But Let’s Not Kid Ourselves.
January 16, 2021
It’s hard to go wrong with the Wrath of Kahn, although I never got the point of the Kobayashi Maru – why prepare your officers for death in battle, when its something they’ll have to do once at the most? And no matter how they do it, they’ll end up dead shortly thereafter?Report
Well they still need to preform well in the face of impending death. A captain might be able to save some of his crew or his/her ship while staring death in the face or even through his/her own death.Report
Thing is, when officers order troops to advance into fire, they can only lead by example. It’s by no means certain who’s going to live or die. You can win or lose wars, or reach some stalemate but there’s no winning or losing in such engagements. It’s about who stays and who leaves, who has the drop on whom, which risks are worth taking and which result only in fruitless sacrifices. And there’s luck involved, both good and bad. For every D-Day Landing there’s a Hurtgen Forest.Report
I’m with Greginak. How you deal with the no win situation is important. There’re bad outcomes and there’re less bad outcomes. Being able to salvage the less bad out of the no win scenario without succumbing to despair or berserking would be an enormous asset for an officer on a star ship.Report
The Kobayashi Maru scenario isn’t necessarily fatal. Rather it’s a test that deals with a situation that’s impossible to solve without violating one of several conditions.
There’s some references to how other members of the Enterprise crew handle it. For example, Sulu decides not to violate the Neutral Zone and instead writes a personalized letter to the family members of the crew and passengers of the Kobayashi Maru.
And contra 2009’s Star Trek, IIRC Kirk originally cheated by making it so the Klingons would fear and respect his name, thereby letting him and the freighter go without firing a shot.Report
It’s a plot device, in that it sets us up for the revelation of Kirk’s cheating death In the KM scenario, and later on when he can’t cheat at Spock’s death (though they eventually cheated that, too, with another weaselly plot device). I realize I’m treading on thin ice by suggesting that a piece of the Star Trek canon should best be understood as mere dramatic artifice.Report
The purpose behind the scenario is not to prepare you for death, it is a test of character. What will you do and why do you do it?Report
That was not what i was taught at Star Fleet Academy. You must have been in a later class.Report
What will you do and why do you do it?
1.) Cheat.
2.) To win.
3.) Duh.
Now, where’s that green chick with the Romulan Ale?! WOOOOOO!Report