conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a plot for a book about Michael, Darwin, Siri entitled The Darwin Awards?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Darwin Awards (film): The film opens with a car with a JATO rocket strapped to it.\nThe movie then shifts to Michael Burrows, a criminal profiler for the San Francisco Police Department.\nShot in documentary style, the film is ostensibly a dissertation by a film school grad that follows Michael throughout the story.\nFired from the police force after his hematophobia allows a serial killer to get away, Michael wallows in a deep depression for several weeks before coming up with a way to combine his Darwin Awards obsession with his talent for profiling.\nHe will help insurance companies detect people more likely to accidentally end their own lives, so they are not sold insurance policies.\nAfter impressing an insurance company manager with his profiling talent, Michael is paired up with Siri, a specialist in strange insurance cases.\nSiri and Michael travel the country on behalf of the company, investigating several legendary examples of stupidity, such as the JATO rocket car.\nA pair of men attempting to ice fish become frustrated and use a stick of dynamite to blast a hole in the ice.\nThe problem is their dog plays fetch with the lit dynamite and runs it back to their brand-new SUV.\nAs they investigate the cases, Michael tries to pinpoint a common factor for these people.\nThe only explanation is a confused monologue by Siri about insurance companies always denying claims and driving people insane.\nMichael narrowly avoids becoming a Darwin Award winner throughout the movie.\nHe and Siri are stranded in the middle of nowhere on a cold night.\nDesperate for warmth, he attempts to start a fire with gasoline, causing his car to explode.\nSiri later confronts Michael, accusing him of being obsessed with the Darwin Awards.\nA twist of fate leads to Michael discovering where the murder suspect he originally allowed to escape now lives, as he videotapes the man in his home by rappelling down the side of the building.\nThe film school student is seen for the first time as he, too, is hanging on the side of the building.\nThe problem is his rope is the other end of the same one Michael is dangling by.\nThe stone vase on the roof that the pair is anchored to starts inching closer to the edge.\nAt the same time the serial killer taunts them while slicing open the captive Siri's hand, hoping to trigger Michael's hematophobia.\nBut Michael is able to overcome his fear and defeats the serial killer.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Darwin Awards (film): The film opens with a car with a JATO rocket strapped to it.\nThe movie then shifts to Michael Burrows, a criminal profiler for the San Francisco Police Department.\nShot in documentary style, the film is ostensibly a dissertation by a film school grad that follows Michael throughout the story.\nFired from the police force after his hematophobia allows a serial killer to get away, Michael wallows in a deep depression for several weeks before coming up with a way to combine his Darwin Awards obsession with his talent for profiling.\nHe will help insurance companies detect people more likely to accidentally end their own lives, so they are not sold insurance policies.\nAfter impressing an insurance company manager with his profiling talent, Michael is paired up with Siri, a specialist in strange insurance cases.\nSiri and Michael travel the country on behalf of the company, investigating several legendary examples of stupidity, such as the JATO rocket car.\nA pair of men attempting to ice fish become frustrated and use a stick of dynamite to blast a hole in the ice.\nThe problem is their dog plays fetch with the lit dynamite and runs it back to their brand-new SUV.\nAs they investigate the cases, Michael tries to pinpoint a common factor for these people.\nThe only explanation is a confused monologue by Siri about insurance companies always denying claims and driving people insane.\nMichael narrowly avoids becoming a Darwin Award winner throughout the movie.\nHe and Siri are stranded in the middle of nowhere on a cold night.\nDesperate for warmth, he attempts to start a fire with gasoline, causing his car to explode.\nSiri later confronts Michael, accusing him of being obsessed with the Darwin Awards.\nA twist of fate leads to Michael discovering where the murder suspect he originally allowed to escape now lives, as he videotapes the man in his home by rappelling down the side of the building.\nThe film school student is seen for the first time as he, too, is hanging on the side of the building.\nThe problem is his rope is the other end of the same one Michael is dangling by.\nThe stone vase on the roof that the pair is anchored to starts inching closer to the edge.\nAt the same time the serial killer taunts them while slicing open the captive Siri's hand, hoping to trigger Michael's hematophobia.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first five paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Darwin Awards
  DNA analysis garnered good press in the 1990s, when it exonerated people who were wrongly sentenced to life in prison. Suddenly, a drinking glass or comb had the potential to identify its user beyond a reasonable doubt. Paternity cases became open-and-shut, as did cases of forcible rape.†
  DNA analysis is extremely accurate.† Errors are so rare (1 in 10,000) that DNA, if available, is nearly always the most accurate method of identification. Problems with DNA analysis are nearly always low-tech, caused by a careless worker. Even a good lab has an error rate of 1 in 200, not because of inaccuracy in the DNA testing itself, but because, for example, samples are mislabeled or contaminated.
  This is not a problem if DNA tests are performed after there is reason to suspect a person. However, with the growth of DNA databases, the possibility now exists for someone to be accused based solely on DNA. This creates a measurable risk of a false identification. For example, processing a rape kit often takes years. A scan through a database of DNA profiles could lead to a chance hit on an innocent person who cannot remember what he was doing on the night of September 17,2002. A false positive rate of 1 in 200 may be acceptable if there are three suspects, two of whom are likely to be eliminated by DNA analysis; it is not acceptable when randomly combing through the linked databases of the FBI and various states, which currently contain close to two million DNA profiles.
  DNA's extremely high accuracy rate can also lead to misinterpretation. We may prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant has the murder victim's blood on his shirt, without proving anything at all about whether he participated in the murder. He might have simply bandaged her skinned knee earlier that day. There have already been five cases of identical twins implicated in a crime that only one committed* (although in only one case has there been any difficulty eliminating the innocent twin from suspicion). A 99.5% chance that the test has correctly identified a bloodstain does not translate into a 99.5% chance that the defendant is guilty, but the jury might give the evidence unwarranted weight. Likewise, an attorney might mention the low error rate of a test, without mentioning that the immense database almost guarantees a few chance hits. The problem isn't with DNA evidence per se, but with how it's presented in the courtroom and interpreted by the jury.
  Juries weigh evidence differently than logic would dictate. Facts, figures, graphs, and experts convey information, but may confuse the jury. Eyewitnesses and vivid descriptions grab attention and sympathy, but often convey no new information. Juries will convict on the basis of eyewitness testimony two-thirds of the time, even if the only witness wasn't wearing his glasses. Without a witness, they convict only one-sixth of the time.* A jury is more likely to believe a confident witness than a hesitant one, even though tests prove that confidence does not correlate with witness accuracy. Juries might acquit due to sympathy. And they're more likely to convict if the crime was particularly horrendous, even if it's not clear who committed it.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know two more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: An ice maker may seem innocuous, but when it's big enough to walk into—for example, one that supplies ice to fishing boats—it can be so dangerous that safety procedures and fail-safe devices are required. So it was a bit of a surprise when employees at a fish-processing plant heard screams emanating from inside the giant ice maker.
  An employee had been running the machine when the flow of ice jammed. Access to the machine's auger chamber was restricted, and employees are trained never to enter the chamber while the auger is running. It would be easy enough to ignore the warning signs, but it is hard to get around another safety feature: The auger will not run unless the operator holds down a foot pedal outside the chamber. Take your foot off the pedal and the machine shuts down.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last five paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Stephen Darksyde is a freelance science writer with a strong background in math and physics. He has a longstanding interest in conveying the wonder and importance of science to the layperson. Stephen writes regularly for the Daily Kos, one of the most visited blogs in the world. He lives near Kennedy Space Center in Florida in "Darksyde Manor" with Mrs. DS, a cat named Nikki, and a dog named Darwin.
  James G. Petropoulos was born and raised in Queens, New York City. He attended Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (BA, Naval Commission). James works as an animator and director in traditional drawn media and CGI. He served as a Naval Reserve officer for eleven years and is now a bandsman with the 199th Army Band, NY Army National Guard. He is a professional bandleader and jazz percussionist, as well as a Sunday School teacher, Freemason, and Darwin Awards moderator.
  Scientist Tom Schneider studies the mathematics of biology. "Living things are too beautiful for there not to be a mathematics that describes them." He spends his free time on the contra dance floor, and cohabits with a cactus named Hairy who has not yet participated in pasta experiments.
  Norm Sleep teaches geophysics at Stanford University. His interests include conditions on the Earth and the habitability of other planets. He was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and grew up in the paper mill town of Parchment. He graduated from Michigan State University and arrived at MIT during the plate tectonic scientific revolution. His thesis was on subducting slabs. He taught at Northwestern University before moving to Stanford. His interest in habitability stems from his work on hydrothermal circulation at midoceanic ridges and his work on the feeble tectonic activity on Mars.
  Maia Smith will not be returning to school this fall. Instead, she plans to travel full-time, returning to Martha's Vineyard each summer to work, hang out with friends, and decompress. Her list of possible careers includes any combination of midwife, bush pilot, artist, commercial diver, overseas English teacher, ethicist, and satirist; for now, "professional vagrant" seems apt. Her most recent travels are chronicled on her website, www.maiasadventures.com.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Stephen Darksyde is a freelance science writer with a strong background in math and physics. He has a longstanding interest in conveying the wonder and importance of science to the layperson. Stephen writes regularly for the Daily Kos, one of the most visited blogs in the world. He lives near Kennedy Space Center in Florida in "Darksyde Manor" with Mrs. DS, a cat named Nikki, and a dog named Darwin.
  James G. Petropoulos was born and raised in Queens, New York City. He attended Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (BA, Naval Commission). James works as an animator and director in traditional drawn media and CGI. He served as a Naval Reserve officer for eleven years and is now a bandsman with the 199th Army Band, NY Army National Guard. He is a professional bandleader and jazz percussionist, as well as a Sunday School teacher, Freemason, and Darwin Awards moderator.
  Scientist Tom Schneider studies the mathematics of biology. "Living things are too beautiful for there not to be a mathematics that describes them." He spends his free time on the contra dance floor, and cohabits with a cactus named Hairy who has not yet participated in pasta experiments.
  Norm Sleep teaches geophysics at Stanford University. His interests include conditions on the Earth and the habitability of other planets. He was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and grew up in the paper mill town of Parchment. He graduated from Michigan State University and arrived at MIT during the plate tectonic scientific revolution. His thesis was on subducting slabs. He taught at Northwestern University before moving to Stanford. His interest in habitability stems from his work on hydrothermal circulation at midoceanic ridges and his work on the feeble tectonic activity on Mars.
  Maia Smith will not be returning to school this fall. Instead, she plans to travel full-time, returning to Martha's Vineyard each summer to work, hang out with friends, and decompress. Her list of possible careers includes any combination of midwife, bush pilot, artist, commercial diver, overseas English teacher, ethicist, and satirist; for now, "professional vagrant" seems apt. Her most recent travels are chronicled on her website, www.maiasadventures.