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Science. Games. Snarking.
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Nintendo's Legend of Zelda website has stated the surname of the series' big baddie: Ganondorf Dragmire.
It's the first official usage of the surname in 25 years - since 1992, when it originally appeared in A Link to the Past's English game manual.
The Legend of Zelda series features different incarnations of Ganondorf (and Link, and Zelda), and so Ganondorf Dragmire was previously assumed to be just the name of Ganondorf within that game.
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| John Lachs |
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| Oscar Munoz |
Things get weird on Mass Effect: Andromeda’s desert world of Eos when you start pushing the Nomad over 160 kilometers per hour. As several players have reported on Reddit, the glitch happens while zooming around the planet’s surface at high speeds.
Uber has devised a "clever and sophisticated" scheme in which it manipulates navigation data used to determine "upfront" rider fare prices while secretly short-changing the driver, according to a proposed class-action lawsuit against the ride-hailing app.
When a rider uses Uber's app to hail a ride, the fare the app immediately shows to the passenger is based on a slower and longer route compared to the one displayed to the driver. The software displays a quicker, shorter route for the driver. But the rider pays the higher fee, and the driver's commission is paid from the cheaper, faster route, according to the lawsuit.
"Specifically, the Uber Defendants deliberately manipulated the navigation data used in determining the fare amount paid by its users and the amount reported and paid to its drivers," according to the suit filed in federal court in Los Angeles. Lawyers representing a Los Angeles driver for Uber, Sophano Van, said the programming was "shocking, "methodical," and "extensive."
The suit (PDF), which labeled the implementation of Uber's technology as a "well-planned scheme to deceive drivers and users," is one of a number of lawsuits targeting the San Francisco-based company. The suits range from disputes over drivers' employment rights to sex discrimination to trade-secrets theft. Just weeks ago, Uber's CEO, Travis Kalanick, declared that he needed "leadership help."
This latest lawsuit claims that Uber implemented the so-called "upfront" pricing scheme in September and informed drivers that fares are calculated on a per-mile and per-minute charge for the estimated distance and time of a ride. "However, the software that calculates the upfront price that is displayed and charged to the Users calculates the expected distance and time utilizing a route that is often longer in both distance and time to the one displayed in the driver’s application," according to the suit.
In the end, the rider pays a higher fee because the software calculates a longer route and displays that to the passenger. Yet the driver is paid a lower rate based on a quicker route, according to the suit. Uber keeps "the difference charged to the User and the fare reported to the driver, in addition to the service fee and booking fee disclosed to drivers," according to the suit.
The manipulation of prices between the amount charged to Users and the amount reported to drivers is clever and sophisticated. The software utilized in determining the upfront price is specifically designed to provide a route distance and time estimate based on traffic conditions and other variables but not to determine the shortest/quickest reasonable route based on those conditions. Meanwhile, the software utilized in the driver’s application, which navigates the drivers to the User’s destination, utilizes traffic conditions and other variables to provide the driver with a more efficient, shorter, or quicker route to the User’s destination, resulting in a lower fare payout to the driver.
The suit claims breach of contract, unjust enrichment, fraud, and unfair competition. The suit seeks back pay and legal fees, and it demands a halt to "the unlawful, deceptive, fraudulent, and unfair business practices."
Uber declined comment.
If you want to understand intra-GOP warfare, the decision-making process of our president, the implosion of the Republican healthcare plan, and the rest of the politics of the Trump era, you don’t need to know about Russian espionage tactics, the state of the white working class, or even the beliefs of the…
Last week, after a surprise attempt by the Trump Administration to take back $1.2 billion of committed funds from NIH, HHS Secretary Tom Price responded:
Price repeatedly suggested reducing the amount the NIH pays universities to cover “overhead” costs, like lab equipment and utilities. That would let the agency direct more of its funds to actual research, even if the overall budget were reduced, he said.
“I was struck by one thing at NIH,” Price said, “and that is that about 30 percent of the grant money that goes out is used for indirect expenses, which as you know means that that money goes for something other than the research that’s being done.”
This led to much internet discussion about how certain places suck down YUGE! and BIGLY amounts of overheads, while other institutions (usually said discussants’) were frugal and noble. If universities had to compete on indirect costs, the major research gluttons would lose and the money would be distributed into the heartland, where good, pious (in a sciencey way) researchers and their administrators would spend the money wisely.
Before I get to the main point–that nobody is leaving money on the table–let’s discuss two other things. First, as Potnia Theron notes, this will just result in a lot of category shifting; related to that, there are things in the indirect category that are legitimate expenses (e.g., personal computers). Second, to all the overhead warriors, you do realize that neither scientists nor universities are getting that money? Instead, it’s going to pay for rich people’s tax cuts.
OK, so onto indirect costs. I went to NIH Exporter and downloaded the FY 2016 RePORTER Project Data (you can too!). Then I started looking at what percentage of institutions’ NIH funding was spent on direct versus indirect costs (keep in mind the caveat I mentioned above). I didn’t break this down by grant type, since the goal was simply to identify the percentage spent on indirect costs across the entire institution (besides, low overhead grants ‘subsidize’ high overhead grants). I also exclude grants that had no overheads, since these were small in size and uncommon, and when I checked a few, it wasn’t clear why there weren’t any overheads (these could be errors).
So let’s look at some institutions. Harvard (and I lumped together Harvard institutions, which administratively probably isn’t correct, but in the popular mind, they’re indistinguishable) has 72.7% of NIH funds spent on direct costs, and 27.3% spent on indirect costs. Now let’s look at some heartlandy stuff. University of North Dakota has a 75.4:24.6 direct-indirect cost split (go Fighting Hawks!), and North Dakota State (go Bison!) has a 72.2:27.8 split. ND State is basically the same as Harvard.
University of Nebraska (go ‘Huskers!) has a 71.8:28.2 split, while the Alaska universities had a 72.7:26.3 split. Stanford, not surprisingly, as it’s always played fast and loose with the rules, has a 68.7:31.3 split.
To examine the Boston effect, Northeastern University has a 74.8:25.2 split, better than many of the public universities. The Broad Institute (which is TAKIN ALL THE MUNEEZ!!) has a 78.6:21.4 split–very efficient! Entities with LLC in their names had a 73.6:26.4 split, while entities with “INC.” in their names had a 77.7:22.3 split.
When I first wrote about this, a faculty member at Ohio University worked himself into high dudgeon over coastal indirect rates. In 2016, Ohio University had a split of 68.9:31.1–worse than Harvard.
Whether overhead rates should be this high to begin with is another question (though this loss of funds would drive up tuition rates, even at large public universities by hundreds of dollars). But there aren’t significant disparities in indirect costs. Your humble heartland institution is just as greedy as your coastal elite one (sometimes even a bit more).
No one is leaving money on the table.
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