vibrantabyss

Well, I have snarfed my coffee for today.

http://scott-lynch.livejournal.com/269876.html

Input interpretation:

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Result:

(edit: apparently, what looked like boxed text to me is an image... which shows fine for me even after reboot, but not for some.  so I have added the text next to the boxes)

Now, the only way that can be right is if there are no full moons in Feb, March, ... hmmm, What the hell does this answer engine know, or think it knows?!  The moon gets knocked out of orbit by a runaway comet?  The earth just plain old isn't here in February? 

Of course, it could just be *wrong*, but given all the 2012-lore, it is an.... interesting result, to say the least.  I wish it explained its reasoning.

W|A is an "answer engine" a type of approaching-AI system, similar to Cyc, if you are an AI geek, and don't want to read about it.  It drives it's math-munging on Mathematica, and yanks data from all over the place.  It does some natural language parsing as well - enough to get my question essentially correct.  The fact that the (for it) simple calculation produced a highly unexpected (and hopefully wrong) result was at least to me, well worth noting.

Especially if you are just plain DUMB.

Still not my favorite stupid crime story, but I doubt anything will ever displace two guys spending 45 minutes trying to break into a van, finally succeeding busting open the back door with a crowbar - only to find that it was an unmarked police surveillance vehicle, complete with three officers inside, who had been trying not to blow their cover...