Slashdot Mirror

Have you ever heard a riddle and come up with a punchline you thought was better than the "official" one?

I was asked this riddle: How did Hellen Keller burn her fingers?

My answer: Learning to spell the word "fire".

The "official" answer: Trying to read a waffle iron.

P.S. Hellen Keller's first word was water, not fire.

Maybe in Europe but in the USA no we don't have frequent sports riots.

Think collegiate sports.

It's a noble cause, but there are questions as to whether or not Brain Age and its ilk work as advertised. Some have found success in improving math scores. Still, results are inconclusive. Given how strapped our schools are for cash right now, it's hard see them snapping up a bunch of DS' and software for questionable benefits.

The really interesting part of all this that the Central East African countries, North and South Rhodisa and Nyaserland had both the malaria and other insect born diseases effectively conquered by the mid 1950s.

And what effect does DDT and other pesticides have on wildlife? If mosquitoes are wiped out then the food for other species is wiped out as well. Such as bats, birds, dragonflies, and frogs.

In addition, we now have vocal, and well funded NGOs, with a vested interest in keeping the third world poor, but pacified.

You can apply that to big business as well. Such as Big Oil. A sovereign nation is invaded for it's oil. The EU, Japan, and US all give billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies so large agribusinesses can export food to the third world and sell it there cheaper than farmers there can grow it. Check out the suicide of farmers in not just India but the US as well. Large businesses like Archer Daniels Midland,ADM, and Cargill get money from government while third world and small farmers in the US, who can't compeat against those large businesses, struggle financially if not goes bankrupt. The freemarket institute CATO has a Case Study In Corporate Welfare about ADM who has been called the biggest corporate welfare queen in history.

Sorry, insects and politicians that cause death, ignorance and disease need killing, not paying.

As entomologists have said if all those insects are wiped out you'd be dead soon, you'd have no food to eat.

Honduras is the classic example of armchair liberals, in the first world, making problems out vanity, ego and stupidity.

How so? Liberals, not the fake ones but Classical Liberals believe in liberty and small government. And it wasn't either them or the fake ones that massacred the Mayas in not just Honduras but Central America itself. Neither one supported the US Army's School of America, which taught Central and South American militaries how to subjugate and torture people.

you don't remember.

I remember a story about using an authenication method to prevent you from sending mail while inebriated from Google. I think this will prevent a sleep emailing person from emailing anyone since you need to read the problem and solve the problem on the screen (unless you are a math klutz).
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/technology/September-October-08/Mail-Goggles--Google-s-Gift-to-the-Inebriated.html

I submitted a story about this Monday, Constitutionality of P2P law "under attack" (rejected) after seeing it in an AP story in the Chicago Tribune. That story quoted NYCL, who it of course called Ray Beckerman. I wondered at the time why he hadn't submitted it himself.

But at any rate, for the corporate media spin on this, here are a few links:
Billion Dollar Charlie vs. the RIAA
Legal Jujitsu in a File-Sharing Copyright Case
Lawsuits Brought by Music Industry Are Unconstitutional, Lawyer Says
Law professor fires back at song-swapping lawsuits (AP)
Law Professor Takes on RIAA
Prof: Penalty unfair, will help with $1M download lawsuit
RIAA defendant enlists Harvard Law prof, students
Harvard Professor: File-Sharing Lawsuits Unconstitutional

This article I found gives a good background of how nationalism and the ruling Islamist-leaning AKP is clamping down on the Orthodox church. The author used to work for the State Department in Istanbul, I think. http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/Europe/Sept-Oct-08/Tide-of-Nationalism-Threatens-Istanbul-s-Greek-Orthodox-Community.html

I am sure that Steven Hawking, like the rest of us, gets smarter by thinking. But they do not get smarter by playing sudoku. Do you understand the difference?

Yes, I understand the difference between your opinion, and all the studies done on this subject. Do Brain Age and Sudoku really make you smarter?