Slashdot Mirror

Yup. Secret clearences are run through the ENTNAC, which anybody can pass. TS and above are where they send a guy to speak in person to friends and family and run more extensive checks. I was only SECRET scum, so I easily got away with violating UCMJ Article 83. No sir, I never smoked marihuana in my life.

It's Article 125 enlistees should worry about. Fortunately, it's usually only invoked in high-profile cases and/or in conjunction of violation of articles like 120 or 134.

One doesn't need a license to have a firearm in Tennessee.

http://crime.about.com/od/gunlawsbystate/a/gunlaws_tn.htm

Permit to purchase rifles and shotguns? No.
Registration of rifles and shotguns? No.
Licensing of owners of rifles and shotguns? No.
Permit to carry rifles and shotguns? No.
Handguns
Permit to purchase handgun? No.
Registration of handguns? No.
Licensing of owners of handguns? No.
Permit to carry handguns? Yes.

I don't jail time is needed, it'll just cost tax payers and do what, punish the people when they've got to deal with the guilt and stigma of what happened?

A social security card is not required. It can be used as a "List C" document for the I9 form.

http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/backgroundcheck/a/background_2.htm

I simply use my passport since it's a "List A" document. Which begs the question ... why is it that we need something more than that? Like this new thing is going to be "unforgeable" ?

Steam's DRM: So, I'm at my Mom's house for a visit and I'm bored. My Mom's computer, primitive though it be, is powerful enough to run Plants versus Zombies. After installing Steam and the game, I'm off and running, all it required was my username and password.

Apple's DRM: My computer, containing all my downloaded iTunes TV series and movies is destroyed in a fire. I can call Apple and beg them to let me re-download them, but this is described "as more a favor then a policy."

Don't punish me for using your DRM and I'll be a happy camper. Because, trust me, I don't have to use it if I don't want to.

I must be defective. Even with his mistake, I got the gist of what he was trying to say... Life may make more sense to you at this web site.. http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ab-grammar

I'm even more defective -- not only did I understand what he was trying to say perfectly, but if replies hadn't called attention to it, I would never have noticed there was any error in the statement to begin with.

I must be defective. Even with his mistake, I got the gist of what he was trying to say... Life may make more sense to you at this web site.. http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ab-grammar

No, I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that, in the U.S. anyway, you haven't violated copyright law, not even technically. Now, if you were to begin distributing those copies it's a different matter.

IANALE, but I believe that copyright law covers duplication, not necessarily distribution. There are "fair use" guidelines covering making copies for personal uses, but these aren't actually codified into law so much as codified into case rulings. There are even court arguments about "making copies" of programs by running it in RAM or installing it onto your hard drive.

if these little bloodsuckers could get away selling you a disc that would play exactly once and then self-destruct Mission Impossible-style, believe me they would do it. They want you to consider your media a consumable, not a collectible.

This has been tried many times. People just weren't interested in buying. That they were grossly overpriced didn't help.

because the government was hard at work for the last 10 years removing regulations created after the great depression

do you in any way dispute or deny that simple fact?

so what would happen if there were no regulations at all?

what would happen is the 1800s, historical fact, moron. where greedy booms continually busted into financial panics, wiping people out constantly. why? BECAUSE THERE WERE NO REGULATIONS YOU MORON

do you know your history? do you honestly want to stand in opposition to well recorded and obvious historical fact?

http://history1800s.about.com/od/thegildedage/a/financialpanics.htm

panic of 1819

panic of 1837

panic of 1857

panic of 1873

panic of 1893

why did these happen. because of HUMAN NATURE

NOT

THE

GOVERNMENT

do you deny that? are you going to tell me the tired line every naive utopianist has ever regurgitated: "all we have to do is convince people to behave in ways they never have in all of recorded history and libertarianism and free market fundamentalism will work! yay!"

fucking retards

fact: an unregulated market NATURALLY bubbles and pops

simple. fucking. fact

do you deny that?

are you going to sit there in denial and deny the fucking truth of the REALITY of the world you live in? not your fantasy life, not your castles in the sky about how things might work if everyone just acted magically unlike human beings. FUCKING FACT: MARKETS NEED TO BE REGULATED HEAVILY BY GOVERNMENTS IN ORDER TO FUNCTION WELL

go ahead, keep denying that

you're a fucking retard in denial of obvious historical fact if so

stop choking on your ignorant propaganda and open your fucking eyes you ignorant idealistic naive assholes, you are destroying this country

Western doctors often prescribe placebos for people.

Yeah, but not for real conditions for which there is real treatment. Unlike homeopathy advocates.

Perhaps because it's deceptive, and profiting off lies is generally considered unethical,

Western doctors often prescribe placebos for people.

"but if I'm paying you to insure my stuff I expect something resembling real customer service, thanks.

Or they can bitch about you to /., that's my favorite customer service! "Most iPhone owners with our insurance are LIARS!" Gee supercoverinsurance.com, let me get my iPhone insured through you so you can call me a liar too.

Before I had an iPhone (which At&t does not offer insurance for), I had insurance on each smartphone I bought. It was ~$5 a month and a $50 deductible, and they only replaced it with new or refurbished model of the exact phone I broke, so if I broke a phone after a year that means I paid $60 + $50 deductible = $110 for a refurbished smartphone. They were coming out way ahead, so I don't understand all the crying by insurance companies

Female cats' need to mate can be satisfied, and so an infertile mate will remove the female from the breeding population for a time.

Until she mates or is spayed, these estrus cycles will repeat as often as every two or three weeks, causing distress to both the queen and her human companions. (1)

Male cats also have a barbed penis; upon withdrawal, the vagina is damaged and the female would be unwilling to mate for a while even if she remained in estrus (i.e. if ovulation failed to be stimulated).

I guess it will require some work with a standard NASA adjustment tool before any replacement part will fit.

So basically it's just like Italian automobiles, then? :-D

I seem to recall watching a documentary that showed the frisbee being invented some time back in 1885 or 1886.

The Frisbie was originally the pie plate used by the Frisbie Pie Company to bake and sell its pies in. Yale students were throwing them around in games since the late 1800's, well before Fred Morrison came up with his "Pluto Platter". Wham-O decided to re-name the Pluto Platter to the Frisbie because that's what it was already widely called, then they had to re-name it again to "Frisbee" in order to avoid trademark infringement.

Well, as a layman, it seems the goal posts for autism diagnosis are widening considerably.

Take for example, this online autism screening quiz for concerned parents:
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/autism/l/bl_autism.htm

It's virtually impossible NOT to get a positive result, which tells you "Your child does seem to have some of the signs and symptoms that should prompt and evaluation for autism or other communication disorder."

For example, I ran through it based on my nephew. He's not autistic. I answered all the questions honestly. And these two were sufficient to trigger "he has the signs and symptoms" bullcrap.

# has language skills or speech that is delayed.
# throws intense or violent tantrums.

His language skills are delayed because that's typical for a child being reared in a bilingual house.
And violent tantrums? I think he gets that from his mother. :)

The cut between local governments and various sports franchises are as varied and individual as the number of entities involved. There is only one constant: they do NOT make money for the local communities.

Link
"But there’s no evidence that using public money to build stadiums is a sensible economic strategy."
Something economists largely agree upon
obligatory wikipedia link
obligatory single issue blog
This is an old issue, and well settled, except among some sports fans, and most muni governments

Actually, I think prescription is correct there (in the sense of there being a positive rule against), though "proscription" could certainly work too.

Searing your steak doesn't actually 'seal' anything in, it just caramelises the outside.Random Google cite. It does still make your steak tastier just like everyone believes, so who cares about the details?

Re: bacteria, not too much of a problem with beef. Chicken and pork tend to be covered in salmonella which is bad news if you don't cook it properly, but beef bacteria are relatively benign and aging beef (see: growing bacteria) is a common way to develop its flavour. I don't know if it's common practice in the USA though, it sounds like something the FDA would have strong words about.

From talking to chefs and chemists, beef is just getting better as it goes grey and slightly smelly but once it goes green or shiny you're looking at trouble. The bacteria start to break down the proteins in the meat the same way a marinade does. Yes, I deliberately keep steak until after its 'use by' date; no, I've never got food poisoning from it; no, I'm not brave enough to serve it to guests ;)

Disclaimer: double check your facts before eating mouldy cow

In practice, a combination of plowing, very high sodium chloride levels, and the action of rolling tires can make roads fairly safe to drive even below 0F.

Link

Citation maximum age is 42. Story about someone joining at the age of 36.

Well, your stereotype of basic training, like all your stereotypes is flat out wrong. The point of basic is to instill discipline and modify behavior.

Attitude, n. "the way a person views something or tends to behave towards it, often in an evaluative way."

The military doesn't give a rat fuck about your attitude...

I would gather that you have not been in the military. In my experience, they're confident enough of their service and their statements about it to not resort to terms like "rat fuck". As well, if they honestly do have a problem with someone, it's solved quickly and quietly so they can go back to their drinks.

(And you also seem to be ignorant of the fact that the military does hire civilians in special cases, and even assigns them to operational and deployed units.)

I didn't mention any of that in my original post, nor do I see it's relevance. You are attempting to muddy the waters with irrelevant commentary to detract from the fact that you don't like me personally and are throwing irrational argument after irrational argument.

And even so, you're still wrong. The military has long waived the age requirements for narrow and specialized fields where civilian experience is desirable and not available among younger people.

Citation aaaand... citation. Care to revise your statement, sir?

Well, NASA's anual budget is actually closer to the monthly cost of the Iraq war, but your point remains essentially valid.

I guess you missed the IE8 zero day exploit just last week? It's only the latest way in which PC users get owned through no fault of their own.

It's not like OS X never had glaring 0-day exploits of its own, so what's your point?

This piece of art reminds me of The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson. In that story, the bottle had to be resold for less than you paid for it. Similar concept though http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/rlstevenson/bl-rlst-bot.htm

No, it's "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

I never claimed that, the keyword is: NOWADAYS

You never said "nowadays" in your post. You never gave any kind of time frame to contextualize your prejudiced generalization. But you are right, "nowadays" I don't see Christians running around with bombs in their underpants - but that's because they're too busy molesting altar boys. See? Generalizations serve no one...

You can't cook an egg with 2 cellphones.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_cook_egg_cell_phones.htm

You're correct. Many kinds of coral do this, as do some clams and nudibranchs.

The relationship between host and algae partner can be kind of delicate in corals, though. Being able to make your own photosynthetic apparatus could be a more robust system.

Fruit-bearing plants like the tomato need completely non-toxic (at least to its target symbiant) to spread its seed, so the fruit wouldn't have been poisonous. However, the rest of the tomato plant is inedible; many plants are like that.

The tomato's fruit never was poisonous, but people thought it was.

Tomato history
French botanist Tournefort provided the Latin botanical name, Lycopersicon esculentum, to the tomato. It translates to "wolfpeach" -- peach because it was round and luscious and wolf because it was erroneously considered poisonous. The botanist mistakenly took the tomato for the wolfpeach referred to by Galen in his third century writings, ie., poison in a palatable package which was used to destroy wolves.

The English word tomato comes from the Spanish tomatl, first appearing in print in 1595. A member of the deadly nightshade family, tomatoes were erroneously thought to be poisonous (although the leaves are poisonous) by Europeans who were suspicious of their bright, shiny fruit. Native versions were small, like cherry tomatoes, and most likely yellow rather than red.

No. You do not have an allergy to sunlight. You have non-allergic rhinitis. It is an exaggerated histamine response. Like getting a runny nose in the cold. http://allergies.about.com/od/fa1/f/nasoocularrefle.htm There is a condition commonly known as sun allergy, but it is not actually an allergy. Just an ultrasensitivity to UV radiation. http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec18/ch214/ch214c.html An allergy to sunlight is a myth.

"Sure, Thiomersal/Thimerosal has been ruled out as a factor. But can we really already rule out that any link exists between vaccines and autism (or no link at all, by the way)?"

This is one problem I have with the antivax groups. A little tactic called "moving the goal posts." Why are autism/vaccines linked? Thimerosal! Wait, that's been removed and autism rates haven't dropped? Then it's the MMR combined shot. Wait, studies have shown no link? Well, then it's the number of shots kids get. Wait, kids get exposed to more pathogens in a day then we expose them to via vaccines in their lifetime? Well, then it's toxins in the vaccines.... We can never prove to antivax groups 100% conclusively that autism isn't caused by vaccines because every time one of their theories is shot down, they immediately come up with another one. It's a game of "sure, my last 99 theories were wrong but this one's right so you should devote resources towards researching this link."

"Population groups that do not vaccinate for religious reasons do not develop regressive autism- regardless whether they're genetically related groups such as the Amish or groups from independent backgrounds. How do you explain that?"

Easy. It's not true. The Amish actually do vaccinate and their rates of autism are lower. Also see http://antiantivax.flurf.net/#Population_X_and_Vaccines_Autism

"To put things into perspective, autism rates are now higher than the death count prevented by the vaccines. Just better diagnoses do not account for the thousand-percent increase in autism rates in the last decades, so it seems environmental factors cannot yet be ruled out."

The insinuation of that statement is that vaccines cause autism and thus we have to balance preventing deaths via vaccine and preventing autism via not vaccinating. The fact of the matter, though, is that studies have shown no vaccine-autism link. Meanwhile, diagnosis *has* improved dramatically. We know understand that autism is a spectrum, not just a specific illness. Some people might have Asperger's Syndrome and seem fine. Others will have full-blown can't-communicate-with-anyone Autism.

Decades ago, a person might have just been labeled "stupid/retarded/etc" and that would have been it. Now we can run tests and identify people with Autism. The CDC has identified a 57% increase in the past few years. (A far cry from 1000%.) We should definitely look into the causes of autism, but vaccines have been ruled out already. Right now it looks like mainly genetics with some possible environmental factors tossed in.

Heads-up display, much like the system used in Cadillacs.
http://cars.about.com/od/cadillac/ig/2008-Cadillac-STS-gallery/2008-Cadillac-STS-HUD.htm

viewing a map with turn by turn superimposed over the windshield would be killer app

It would be even cheaper to buy a machine to do it. It is horrible and sad when someone tries (and/or succeeds) in disrupting our travel system, so it would be nice if the system would stop attacking itself every time someone tries to do anything. It makes unsuccessful attacks into successful ones. I haven't seen such a disproportionate response since the mooninites terrorized Boston's Stupidest.

The TSA's actions tend to be similar to an autoimmune disease, overreacting to the slightest provocation with a response much more damaging than the original stimulus could have ever been.

Self-destructive overreactive "security" has replaced most concern for the actual traveler's experience. Remember the old days when they had a guard checking bag tags at the destination airport, to make sure that the customer's bag is not stolen by some random other passenger? That's no longer important enough to assign even one person at any airport I've been to lately. I miss that.

That new rule about not getting up during the last hour of a flight - that would have made it a crime to have stopped an attack, the way the guy on the christmas flight did. If he tried that today, regardless of intention, he'd be incurring a severe risk of jail for it.

Given the amount of deaths we as a society accept every day from car accidents alone, and somehow don't find to be a national emergency and stop using cars, ultimately we would all rather live with the inherent risks of flying than have the government causing scenes such as the above. If I'm taking a vehicle with wheels to and/or from the airport, that's more dangerous than the flying part anyway. It's time to acknowledge that.

Also, lightning killed 33 people last year, which is lower than normal (40 http://www.weather.gov/os/lightning/fatalities.htm, http://weather.about.com/od/thunderstormsandlightning/f/lightningdeaths.htm). Since 1994, 489 people have died due to lightning strike.

187 passengers died in 2001 in the 9/11 attacks (excluding terrorists), without counting the buildings, Pentagon, etc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks).

We have lost more people to terrorism than lightning strikes by a long ways.

Side note: being hit by lightning is unusually common from here in Florida, ranking in at a whopping FIFTY (www.dep.state.fl.us/cmp/events/files/paxton.ppt), which is better than your state lottery odds. However, most people live through the strike (5 deaths). Investing in lightning rods is foolish, because when it comes right down to it, not very many people die that way.

Everybody can be replaced. But at what cost?

What People Cost

You are right, but you are also comparing apples and oranges. You can't compare Luxembourg where you can cover the entire country with 5 cell towers, thus you get "better coverage" with United States, where a wireless startup would need hundreds of billions of dollars to deploy a nation-wide network that is feasible and marketable. Everything is different: size of investment, final product, pricing structure, etc.

It must be nice for the Europeans to reap the benefits and investment that Americans put into emerging technologies...or the Russians, going straight to G4 without any intermediate business costs and investments.

Tree wood has about 2300 (kilo)calories per pound, while human meat has somewhere from 800-2000 (kilo)calories per pound. But bones have even more calories than wood. And I don't think the flesh-eating robots we've seen can eat wood (or bone), but rather leaves. Which have about 100 (kilo)calories per pound. Meat is a better fuel.

Bullshit, I couldn't find the calories for.

Potatoes have some of the highest calories of any staple plant, which is why Europe went through a population explosion after bringing them back from the Western Hemisphere. But there aren't a lot of potatoes in battlefields. Not as many calories per acre as in human bodies. Especially in the camps around the battlefields.

And why bother sic'ing your ravenous robots on the enemy's potato fields, when they can chew through their troops instead?

Your math looks good.

But yeah, there are over 80,000 chinese characters so they should be good to go.

http://chineseculture.about.com/library/symbol/blccbasics.htm

So in base 80,000 they should just need xxxx.xxxx

;-)

I'm curious what Wired said about .com you find so offensive?

http://wired.about.com/ ??

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/militarylaw1/a/obeyingorders.htm

An order to commit a crime is illegal. Yes it is sometimes perilous to refuse on such grounds, but if it is obviously against the law (purposely killing unarmed women or children, rape, etc are obviously illegal.) then you must refuse the order or be held just if not more accountable for the crime then the ordering official. Ohh and I was just stating the fact Im a veteran cause it gives me insight into the military thats all.

Note: You cannot disobey orders beacuse of danger or other such things, those are still lawful. You can ask for clarification, and many officers are willing to listen to everyones input to a certain extent. I never met a officer, or senior NCO that did not support an open door policy. Althou there is a time and a place, under fire isnt one.

Citations:
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/finetypography/ht/line_length.htm
http://desktoppub.about.com/library/nosearch/bl-linelength.htm

Notice how newspapers break the content into columns, even if a single article covers 5 columns in page width? There is an optimal text width that helps people read best. 80 might be a number coming from punch card days, but it is still a good approximation of "ideal" column width as used by various publishing standards. It is, in fact, a bit more than ideal column width. I see 2 reasons for this:

1. Breaking simple text simply results in excessive hyphenation. Breaking code into multiple lines has higher impact because code has its own indentation too.
2. Indented code that starts at 20th column and ends in 80th column => total width is 60 columns which closer to the ideal columns width.

Citations:
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/finetypography/ht/line_length.htm
http://desktoppub.about.com/library/nosearch/bl-linelength.htm

Notice how newspapers break the content into columns, even if a single article covers 5 columns in page width? There is an optimal text width that helps people read best. 80 might be a number coming from punch card days, but it is still a good approximation of "ideal" column width as used by various publishing standards. It is, in fact, a bit more than ideal column width. I see 2 reasons for this:

1. Breaking simple text simply results in excessive hyphenation. Breaking code into multiple lines has higher impact because code has its own indentation too.
2. Indented code that starts at 20th column and ends in 80th column => total width is 60 columns which closer to the ideal columns width.

It's not broken logic, it's a general problem with the definition of "religion". You are using a substantive definition, replying to somebody using a functional definition. There is no generally accepted definition of "religion" and your parent poster's position was just as valid as yours.

How about dogs vs cats, elephants vs giraffes, Falcons vs crocodiles and on and on and on? You can make your own list. None of these creatures are able to breed together.

I want a complete list of all known species and the way you classify them, not just some stuff made up on the spot. Science has created such a long list. If evolution is so wrong, creationist "scientist" surly have created one of their own to prove their point and explain all the hard things like ring species or the hypbrids mentioned earlier.

alligator becoming an eagle.

Finally, Crocoduck *facepalm*, thats not how evolution works.

How about you visit this nice page or the hundreds of others that explain evolution, before making such bullshit claims.

LCDs still suffer from something very similar to the old CRT burn-in.

I never really searched through past email

I am, frankly, dumbfounded to hear someone say this. I find myself grepping old mail at least several times a month.

but I did lose archives during sync operations and missed having access to email when at the office. Gmail wins this battle every time

Gmail does not win the data loss battle every time.

As for access, all my personal mail (and also the mail from my current job) includes is in MH folders on my home box. I can ssh in from anywhere -- even from my phone -- and have access to e-mail archives going back more than a decade from MH, alpine, or standard command-line tools.

I promise to reply to emails quickly wherever I am if you promise never to ask me to remember what we talked about.

Ah. Well, if you never discuss anything worthwhile by e-mail, I suppose your needs are different.

Why would I want to keep flying?

I get an Amtrak sleeper car. For only a little more than a cattle-class cross-country air ticket, I can spend few days in a moving hotel room (with shower!), and see some of the most gorgeous terrain in the entire nation. Plus, with cell phone tethering, I can actually get work done on the train. Plus, there's actual sit-down dining available.

And hell, the coach seats are more spacious than first class ones aboard all but the mightiest aircraft.

Sure, rail travel takes longer than flying, but is that such a problem when planning ahead, and when actually being on the train isn't so bad? Besides: with any luck, we'll have more high-speed rail in the future.

See this:

Many people who adopt the label of agnostic reject the label of atheist — there is a common perception that agnosticism is a more “reasonable” position while atheism is more “dogmatic,” ultimately indistinguishable from theism except in the details. This is not a valid position to adopt because it misrepresents or misunderstands everything involved: atheism, theism, agnosticism, and the nature of belief itself. It also happens to reinforce popular prejudice against atheists.

No one will care about the copyrighted works of someone over a thousand years in the past

Don't be so sure about that - http://atheism.about.com/od/scientology/ig/Anonymous-Protest--Scientology.--Vq/Scientology-s-Lawsuits.htm