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whoosh

There are some things AI is good at without being annoying, such as suggesting URL's as you type them, or suggesting the temperature so you don't burn your food. Good AI tries to prevent human error by suggesting alternatives.

So you voted for Gore, get over it already.

snopes to the rescue: http://www.snopes.com/rumors/putcall.asp

We have a story of an AC about a single instance modded informative. We have an incident involving a pair of serial killers (raped and killed 12 people remember) being shot with a hunting rifle, yet the closest stories google can find are a snopes false granny story and a real robbery incident with a handgun (described by the NRA, who should know, as "among the more dramatic"), so somehow the story of shooting two serial killers doesn't fit in. Now, there are lots of people reading Slashdot, and it's possible that this is a true story, but there is no way it should be modded up without at least an account name to back it up. The advice given is extremely dangerous. If people stop helping each other then the "bad people will win".

Now, to the original AC, and assuming that this was a true story; Please think again about how you say what you say. Your sister may have made a misjudgement, but you have to come to terms with that and realise that what she did was the right thing and most of what happened to her was bad luck. There are ways she could have been more careful; but in the end everybody has to get involved, we have to take some risk and 99.9% of the time it works out fine. If we don't do that then horrible things happen:

• There have been experiments done where thousands of people will not help lost children and even those that do are terrified of the consequences.
• There are many stories like this one where a two year old girl died because a bricklayer was afraid to help.
• Random strangers get ignored on the street
• simple stories about jump starting cars will cease to exist (and I thank all those people who have helped me with mine)

It's not enough to just say "call the cops". There aren't enough cops to investigate every possible strange situation, they won't be able to come reliably if they to. Call the cops means that most of the time people will do nothing. Worse, we end up with a passive society of afraid people who can't act on their own and expect "the authorities" to do everything for them. And even worse, with media hysteria stories like this, we get a culture where those that intervene are considered abnormal or even begin to believe they will get into trouble. You say:

The world has changed. If you are nice, you will be taken advantage of by those who aren't.

Yes; according to the US Department of Justice, the world has changed; it's much safer than it used to be.

The rate of reported rape among women decreased by 10% from 1990 to 1995 (80 per 100,000 compared to 72 per 100,000) (Greenfeld, 1997). In 1995, 97,460 forcible rapes were reported to the police nationwide, representing the lowest number of reported rapes since 1989.

Instead, we have to teach people a bit of a different lesson. Be extremely careful about interactions which are initiated by the other side. Make a visible call to a friend; give the license plate and description of the car that you are going to help. Single women don't help groups of men on their own without first making a call. Single men (who are actually most subject to violence) are careful too. Use judgement. But in the end, most of the time you just have to take some risk in life.

The Russians already invented those so that they could have a writing instrument that would work in weightless environments.

Alas, too bad that story is false. Both space agencies initially used pencils.

Anyhow, one of the reasons for switching is the graphite dust that pencils emit - it could be troublesome since it hangs in the air - either fouling filters or could potentially short-circuit some of the electricals. And also the broken tips that happen annoyingly often - break the tip and it could send that piece of graphite flying until it lodges itself inside some panel.

The entire thing about most people only using 10% of their brain is a complete fabrication. The number is significantly higher than that.

For what it's worth, I'm told higher intelligence is linked with more efficient linkage networks / maps within the brain, not necessarily actual usage. Average Joe's neurons get to take the slow path, whereas someone who is reading this statement is more likely to have a much more efficient Network.

Now all we need to do is invent a brain scan that sorts by neural efficiency rather than neural effort, and then we can just kill off the rest of the population to prevent Idiocracy from ever taking place. [/joke]

Court documents or it didn't happen. Quoth snopes.com

Although there have been a few verifiable cases of pets subjected to microwaving, each of them were deliberate acts of cruelty, perpetrated by twisted souls who knew all too well what they were doing. Micropoochings arising from a lack of understanding of the technology, however, are still incidents of lore only.

The Government gets to restrict our freedom's and buy bigger shiny new toys and has even more reasons to keep printing money until it costs more to print it than its worth.

In a sense (cents?) they've been doing this for years

>>It's too bad that would have to happen with this president and not the previous one, who happened to be Houdini of inventing BS from thin air. Free-speech zones. WMD. Blocking Scientific Papers.

The free speech zones really came to pre-eminence at the 1999 WTO talks, not the 2004 Democratic convention. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone) I know that "blaming Clinton" isn't nearly as popular as trying to pin everything on GWB, but it's not good to live in fact-free zone, either.

He didn't invent the idea that WMDs would be found in Iraq (again, Clinton - http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/wmdquotes.asp). Also, minor stockpiles of WMDs were found in Iraq (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/wikileaks-show-wmd-hunt-continued-in-iraq-with-surprising-results/).

While I agree with you on the anti-scientific behavior relating to the AGW paper squelching, you should be careful yourself to make sure you've got your fact right.

Urban legend, here on Snopes.

You're like (I used this example, because something similar really happened and is well-known):
Hey, that dude went to the back of his motor home to make a coffee *while on the freaking highway*, crashed, and now can't walk.

Nope. Long running urban legend, constantly morphing according whatever the current society or teller wants to bash (in your case, disabled people.)

I guess Larry could debate that with you on point?

It's proper usage to say "just deserts":

http://www.snopes.com/language/notthink/deserts.asp

RSA keys are compromised, Sony gets compromised, and meanwhile the bankcard industry continues to come down hard on independent retailers to force them to bring their internal systems into PCI compliance. I know small retailers that have invested tens of thousands to secure their WiFi, update their firewall, upgrade their debit pads, all to protect cardholder data. Seriously, what criminal is going to target Joe's Hardware Store to snag a few hundred bankcards? These guys want the big targets. As Willie Sutton didn't say, "That's where the money is". Criminals are going to aim at the top of the food chain, not at the mom and pop store. And even if they do hack the mom and pop store the damage is minimal compared to an RSA or Sony breach.

It's no worse than having visited 57 states http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/57states.asp, or signing in at Westminster 3 years too late http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/obama-westminster-abbey-guestbook-date_n_866324.html. It's a politician being dump, yet there are over 500 comments on how dumb this one is with none that I've seen regarding the favored politician du jour.

I can't get over how irrelevant Palin is, yet everyone is clawing over each other to point it out over and over again.

I had heard of this as well and apparently it's just a myth and not true: http://www.snopes.com/science/nobel.asp

Are you sure about that, as in you have a citation to some sort of city code? I've heard about this "law" in many different cities. The usual rumor is that sorority houses are outlawed because having 4 or more unrelated women living together constitutes a brothel, but that is just a bunch of BS.

Sometimes you need to state the obvious over and over again because it doesn't take much for a person to internalize a viewpoint that makes the obvious non-obvious. Like Lewis Caroll pointed out, 3 times seems to be enough.

As simple examples, Snopes take on aspartame causing cancer & tumors and as an ant poison The FDA still ends up being inundated with this claim so many times a year that they end up retesting, just to humor the population.

As a more loaded example, check out the belief systems of anyone who claims they are strongly religious. Or Truthers. Or Birthers.

Sadly, it appears that the majority of the population needs to be told what is obvious over and over.

Sometimes you need to state the obvious over and over again because it doesn't take much for a person to internalize a viewpoint that makes the obvious non-obvious. Like Lewis Caroll pointed out, 3 times seems to be enough.

As simple examples, Snopes take on aspartame causing cancer & tumors and as an ant poison The FDA still ends up being inundated with this claim so many times a year that they end up retesting, just to humor the population.

As a more loaded example, check out the belief systems of anyone who claims they are strongly religious. Or Truthers. Or Birthers.

Sadly, it appears that the majority of the population needs to be told what is obvious over and over.

This is total nonsense. Genes NATURALLY spread widely in a unpredictable and random manner. New genes are produced all the time by mutation. Species NATURALLY become extinct all the time.

The potential for anything going horribly wrong is zero.

The idea that old school bananas are going extinct is pure BULLSHIT circulated on internet scare sites.

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/bananas.asp

The anit-GMO crowd has completely and 100% certifiably gone off the deep end. There is no none zero scientific basis for what they are doing whatsoever.

Good to see I've drawn out a know-nothing deletionist, but I repeat myself.

Oh, and before the obligatory [Citation Needed]:
http://www.snopes.com/language/notthink/deserts.asp
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/just_deserts
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/just-deserts.html

http://www.snopes.com/religion/rapture.asp

It sounds like he is trying to create an publicly funded snopes.com, and put some thought into what safeguards would be needed to prevent it from becoming a tool of either corporations or politicians.

So, since the distance between rails was determined by the size of a horse's ass, does that mean the Southern horses were better fed?

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp

Seriously though, the snopes writeup notes that the South used not just five-foot gauge but a total of three different ones, and that that inconsistency was one of the factors that decided the Civil War.

This is one of those items that - although wrong in many of its details - isn't exactly false in an overall sense and is perhaps more fairly labeled as "True, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons."

In other words, mostly true, but some false claims. Read the Snopes article. It's a good read.

Quit taking that quote out of context! The man was referring to home automation--computers running everything in the home. The idea of a computer in the home for normal people to use quite appealed to him, and in fact, used to promote the idea.

Why is the whitehouse.gov using a black & white pdf version of a scanned jpeg from snopes.com? http://msgboard.snopes.com/politics/graphics/birth.jpg They could certainly scan the original themselves and post that. I would normally think that whitehouse.gov would be the source rather than snopes.com.

"But, heavens, what if we - as world policemen - hadn't invaded Iraq?"

Saddam would still be slaughtering people, the middle east would be one huge terrorist training camp, and Bin Laden would still be alive.

Want to save money? Cut welfare so we don't have people who have never worked in 60 years complaining about their free house and their 60-inch HD TV. The US spent $622 billion on the entire Iraq war while welfare costs $888 billion EVERY YEAR

Reminds me of this: http://www.snopes.com/rumors/pershing.asp

A more-correct analogy would be viewing a snuff film ...I'm not going to delve into the conclusions that can be drawn from that ... as this topic is too loaded with emotion and pseudo-psychology to actually have a rational discussion.

Pity, because there is one interesting aspect to it. Despite violent films featuring death being hugely popular and profitable, there are bugger all snuff films. If that snopes article is to believed this isn't because fake violence satisfies demand, as cinematographically poor movies were nonetheless popular if the public were hood winked into thinking there were real snuff films.

So snuff films are a counter example to the oft repeated claims here that supply always follows demand. And guess what - we didn't need to delve into any pseudo-psychology to reason about it.

http://www.snopes.com/music/media/cdlength.asp — apparently it is unknown whether the audio CD was designed specifically to fit Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

You covered a lot in that brief rant. Snopes provides a little more information.

Philadelphia fans ...
They boo Santa Claus

But I'll admit, that was a pretty sad pitch.

Plus high standards at Citizen's Bank Park

Here you go. It's been verified by the proper officials. Read at the bottom where it says 'This copy serves as prima facie evidence of the fact of birth in any court proceeding.' That's it. That's all that needs to be provided. So what is it you are looking for? What could the man possibly be 'hiding'? The man's name already has Hussein and Obama in it. What evil thing do you think he did when he was born? Did he have a tail? He won't deny it.

If you take issue with his policy by all means debate it. Address the issues and debate the merits of your argument. If your going to create bogeyman to chase after then don't be surprised when people 'assign some false claim' to you.

If people can't see this: http://msgboard.snopes.com/politics/graphics/birth.jpg, realize that birth announcements were made in the local papers, and notice that multiple agencies have put investigating it's legitimacy and found it real, then no amount of convincing that trustedID is trustable is going to convince them.

If I have to bring at least two newspaper articles, several sworn officials, several in depth investigations and court rulings in support of my identity to prove myself for an amazon purchase and it is still not enough, I don't think I am going to adopt that system.

Maybe the GP was recycling this old Dan Quayle joke.

Are you sure?

Please stop propagating debunked myths, thanks. Railroad track gauges vary widely around the world.

Urban legend. NASA didn't develop the space pen, and initially they used pencils too.

12B, come on, claim a bigger number if you want to repeat false tales. It was 13 Trillion dollars and Zillion!

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

NASA tower = SpaceX rocket price might be real. SpaceX doesn't have to waste money on contractors and designs forced on them by Congress in an attempt to appease their district. Congress still trying NASA to use SSRBs and spend billions for political gain, classic.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/washington/enemies.asp

God, you conspiracy nuts are utter bloody morons:
http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/dellbug.asp

Welfare costs more per year than the ENTIRE Iraq war, $888 BILLION a year on welfare vs $622 billion for the iraq war

There are people that have been on welfare for 50+ years and refuse to work and they have children doing the same thing.
""I tried it for a year..you know...working and all. It's not anything I would want to go through again, or wish on anyone in my family, but I am damn proud of that year." "

Welfare needs to stop, it is killing our country. A year, maybe 2, and that's it, no more welfare.

I was with you until you started talking about rib removal. That's been debunked over at Snopes. That comment sort of throws a bad light over the rest of your post. Though, I don't doubt that working in the adult entertainment industry does suck some of your soul away.

Snopes has info on this, apparently the Red Cross charged money for coffee, donuts and lodging at the request of the US military.

This was because of other considerations.

The American government had asked them to start charging so that the rest of the soldiers wouldn't feel hard done by; to provide such things free to the (relatively well-paid) Americans wasn't thought to be fair on the British/Australian/etc. soldiers of lesser salary.

"There is truth to one of the rumors, however. During WWII the American Red Cross did indeed charge American servicemen for coffee, doughnuts, and lodging. However, it did so because the U.S. Army asked it to, not because it was determined to make a profit off homesick dogfaces.

The request was made in a March 1942 letter from Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson to Norman H. Davis, chairman of the American Red Cross. Because American soldiers were fighting as part of the Allied Forces, matters had to be considered on a Force-wide rather than solely American basis. The Red Cross was asked to establish club facilities for U.S. servicemen overseas where Allied troops would be welcome. Because English and Australian soldiers were being charged for the use of such facilities, it was deemed unfair that Americans were to get similar benefits for free, especially in light of their pay already being higher than that of their Allied counterparts. For the good of the alliance, the American Red Cross was persuaded to exact nominal charges from American GIs for off-base food and lodging."

...so they don't seem to deserve the bad rap.

My grandfather always used to tell me that he would die before he ever gave to the Red Cross. When he was in Korea, the Red Cross used to show up and sell soldiers coffee and donuts (at a profit, no less). No money meant no coffee and donuts for you, G.I.

I'm not disparaging their work (I don't know enough to comment on that). I'm just saying that they need to be much more upfront with people about where their money is actually going.

Ten seconds on Snopes; http://www.snopes.com/medical/emergent/redcross.asp

There is truth to one of the rumors, however. During WWII the American Red Cross did indeed charge American servicemen for coffee, doughnuts, and lodging. However, it did so because the U.S. Army asked it to, not because it was determined to make a profit off homesick dogfaces.

Never heard anyone else mention it.

It was a widespread complaint of WW2. Here's a couple of links. Note while the Red Cross claims this was only a WW2 situation, but it's not hard to find Korea conflict vets complaining of direct experience with it. That needs more research.

see bottom
http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.d229a5f06620c6052b1ecfbf43181aa0/?vgnextoid=d8b0f0454556e110VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD&vgnextchannel=477859f392ce8110VgnVCM10000030f3870aRCRD

http://www.snopes.com/medical/emergent/redcross.asp

Who said the window had to open all the way? I'd say 5 inches would be way enough the get some fresh air in.

Besides, as certain Toronto natives know, even closed windows won't stop determined jumpers... or idiots:

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/window.asp

LOL at how he was "one of the best and brightest" lawyers, fuck knows how thick the others must be.