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    • Showing only topics with the tag "science". Back to normal view

    21. Planet Money: Fries Of The Future

      ~food Text 212 words
      From the transcript: By 1988, for the first time, more fast-food orders were taken at a drive-through window than at the restaurant. And this was a problem for the wimpy french fry because by the...

      From the transcript:

      By 1988, for the first time, more fast-food orders were taken at a drive-through window than at the restaurant. And this was a problem for the wimpy french fry because by the time you got home from the drive-through, the fries were no good.

      [...]

      So back then - almost 20, 25 years ago - Lamb Weston invented a coating called Stealth, which was their secret coating that you couldn't see and you couldn't tell was on the french fry, but it lasted - it was crispier longer, up to 12 to 15 minutes.

      [...]

      But this potato company has a new problem now - delivery. And a 12- to 15-minute lasting Stealth french fry isn't going to cut it because delivery takes longer than a drive-through. The average delivery wait time in a busy city is 20 to 30 minutes because drivers pick up multiple orders and make multiple stops.

      [...]

      They're starting to pitch these fries to fast food chains now. So they're not in stores yet, but Deb says they could be in a couple months. You won't know it's a crispy on delivery fry just like you don't know when you're eating a stealth fry. You'll just know you had a better french fry delivery experience.

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      6 votes

    39. Is programming science?

      ~comp Text 184 words
      There's no doubt computer science is indeed a science, but what about programming itself? Does it fulfill the basic requirements that make something a science? I'm not an academic, just trying to...

      There's no doubt computer science is indeed a science, but what about programming itself? Does it fulfill the basic requirements that make something a science? I'm not an academic, just trying to start a conversation.

      In many ways, programming is like Math: a means to an end. And Math is a science. Like math, programming has several fields with vastly different ideas of what constitutes programming. Because it is applied logic, programming is also provable and disprovable. There are many disputing hypothesis and, even though absolute truth is a distant dream, it is certain that some sentences are truer than others. Again, like Math, Programming has many practical applications, such as finances and engineering.

      Some people consider Math a propaedeutics: not a science in itself, but a discipline that provides fundamentals to actual sciences such as chemistry and physics. The same reasoning could be applied to programming, as nothing more than a tool for computer science. I personally think there's something unique about programming and it's problem-solving methods that can be considered a field of its own.

      What you guys and girls think?

      6 votes