Just see what happens when a programmer tries to use Windows Vista’s speech recognition to write a simple script in the Perl programming language.
Now imagine: “Computer, intercept the photon torpedo.”
“The Death of Decency”
All I know about the movie Bobby is that it’s set in the USA at the time of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination. But I just heard writer-director Emilio Estevez say the most amazing things to Margaret Pomeranz.
How to destroy the Earth
It’s harder than you think. A shame, that. It’s Tuesday and I’m in the mood…
How to conduct a political poll
With the NSW election campaign well under way and a federal poll soon, I’m glad I stumbled across this classic explanation of how to get the answer you want from an opinion poll, courtesy of Yes, Prime Minister.
Lie honestly
A curious thing to find on a Monday morning: a passionate argument which claims that…
By lying to yourself, you are often able to innovate. You trick yourself into believing you are headed into something exotic and wonderful where no one has gone before. You imagine the thrill and seethe in the selfishness of seeing the chest of gold for the first time. You bask in your own glory that you are truly right and everyone else is wrong.
I’ve always tried to be an honest person. Is honesty holding me back from true creativity?
Surprise! Prohibition leads to crime!
Gosh, who’d have thought? Ban tobacco in a jail, where almost everyone smokes the stuff, and suddenly black market cigarettes are US$125 a pack. Jailhouse cooks make more from smuggling than cooking.
Chuck Alexander, executive vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, says: “It didn’t do anything but make (tobacco) a lucrative business.”
Thanks to the clever lads at Freakonomics for the pointer — and some fascinating follow-up comments from their readers.