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User: palemantle

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  1. Oh good, India's Nationalists are not only bribing voters but doing so in a way that they can keep can keep an eye on them.

    Heaven help their minorities with this kind of nationalist bullshit.

    Can the 'Oh the poor Muslim "minorities" are targeted' crap.

    This is nothing more than yet another foolish, wasteful election time bribe. This has been going on a long time in Indian politics and is anything but healthy for the country, but I'll thank you not to use that as an excuse to push your silly agenda. Doesn't fit the narrative one bit.

    Just search for 'india election freebies' and you'll find that this isn't anything new.

    Plenty of jokes going around on this topic too including one where a well known minister gets canned because he continued the usual practice of plastering his supremo's photo on all freebies but didn't think to stop short of doing the same for his free toilets scheme.

  2. Status changed to 'Assigned (Reopened)' on Android Pie Breaks Pixel XL's Ability To Fast Charge (theverge.com) · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't think it's quite panic time yet. While it's true that this was marked 'Won't fix' at one point, the issue has now officially been reopened.

  3. Re:It's working fine here... on Is Slashdot Blocked In Parts Of India? (slashdot.org) · · Score: 4, Informative

    Staying in southern India now and haven't had any problems getting to Slashdot. Have tried getting to the site using both Airtel and an ISP called Pioneer which leases bandwidth from all kinds of sources from what I understand.

    So either this bit about government censorship is FUD or the government is unbelievably incompetent at the same. I'm thinking the former.

  4. Indian pushing nuclear power on Many Nations Pin Climate Hopes On China, India As Hopes For Trump Fade (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    Interestingly enough, the cabinet cleared a proposal for 10 new nuclear plants just yesterday.

  5. Ghost in the Shell (1995) on Slashdot Asks: What's Your Favorite Sci-Fi Movie? · · Score: 2

    Not the recent silly Hollywood version but the original 1995 Mamoru Oshii anime:
    GitS

    The sequel is pretty darn good too as are the follow up series.

  6. The world is laughing on Donald Trump Wins US Presidency (nytimes.com) · · Score: 0

    At the risk of sounding incredibly trite and pompous, people get the government they deserve

    This vote isn't much of a surprise to me coming from the land that voted Dubya in ... twice

  7. I don't get it on 47 Years Ago Today, Apollo 11 Landed On the Moon (foxnews.com) · · Score: 1

    Not trivializing the achievement but what's the news here?

    The fact that it's the 47th anniversary or the fact that Buzz Aldrin is tweeting about it? I don't see how either is newsworthy.

  8. Should be obligatory viewing/reading on NASA: Top 10 Space Junk Missions (networkworld.com) · · Score: 1

    Someone somewhere needs to make Planetes obligatory material for space agency personnel somewhere.

    FWIW, Planetes is a hard science manga/anime that talks about the problems associated with space debris and the issues faced by people trying to fix said problems.

  9. Astounding that there's been so little change on Should the US Change Metal Coins? (networkworld.com) · · Score: 1

    I live in a country where the equivalent small change came in denominations of 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50 in the 1960s. The metal used was cupro-nickel at that time.

    Everything 25 and under has now been demonitised (since they weren't worth much any longer and weren't in demand), larger denominations (equivalent to 100, 200, 500, 1000) have been introduced, and metal usage has shifted first to aluminium and now stainless steel.

    I thought that'd be just plain common sense, no matter where you live.

  10. You need a study for this? on Scientists Discover How To Get Kids To Eat Their Vegetables · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A couple of months ago, my mom sees me struggling to shove (not literally) some veggies down my kid's throat and goes, "Stop trying to force-feed her. Leave the food there and when she's hungry, she'll grab it herself".

    Pretty obvious, no? A pity you need a team of researchers and a project to reach this momentous conclusion.

  11. NASA's station? on Whisky Aged On NASA's International Space Station Tastes "Different" · · Score: 1

    In what way is that ISS Nasa's (as the headline [and the article] claims)?

    It's one thing to say that this idiotic experiment was run on the United States Orbital Segment but the headline seems to imply NASA's ownership and right of use.

  12. Quasars? on How Astronomers Will Take the "Image of the Century": a Black Hole · · Score: 1

    I didn't realize that there was still skepticism about the existence of super-massive black holes. If nothing else, we've detected about 200000 quasars - just about the brightest objects in the known universe - each indicating the presence (and proximity) of a supermassive blackhole.

    I thought the general consensus was that there was a supermassive black hole at the centre of every galaxy although only some of these were active, thus showing up as quasars.

    Don't know about this image of the century hyperbole. Quasars are stunning enough and have been seen and studied for what fifty years now.

  13. Re:Good luck in Canada on How Alibaba Turned November 11 Into the World's Biggest Online Shopping Day · · Score: 2

    Canada doesn't start wars. It ends them. We have committed more troops to UN peacekeeping efforts than any other country.

    Sorry for nitpicking - and I'm really not trying to trivialize any country's peace contributions - but I can't find anything to back up this claim. Canada doesn't even seem to be in the top ten in terms of troop contributions.

    I've checked:

  14. Sensationalize much? on Windows Flaw Allowed Hackers To Spy On NATO, Ukraine, Others · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1 - ISight claims this has been a five year campaign and then add that "hackers began only in August to exploit a vulnerability found in most versions of Windows". So where did the "five year" timeline come from?

    2 - "Russian hackers target NATO, Ukraine and others" the article screams and then we find this wishy washy explanation from ISight's John Hullquist on his claim about the hackers being Russian:
    "Your targets almost certainly have to do with your interests. We see strong ties to Russian origins here".

    Sounds like a bunch of FUD to me

  15. A chairman and a bunch of lawyers on Eric Schmidt: Anxiety Over US Spying Will "Break the Internet" · · Score: 1

    Interesting that Google was represented by its executive chairman while Facebook, Microsoft and Dropbox seem to have been represented by their respective legal counsel.

    Disclaimer: For all I know, other executives from Facebook, MS and Dropbox might well have been present but the article says nothing on that front.

  16. Kudos to PM Modi as well... on Mangalyaan Successfully Put Into Mars Orbit · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nice of the PM to visit and sit in on the last stage of the journey, putting science and scientists in the spotlight. Over here (NL) we hardly ever celebrate scientific successes, and accomplished scientists receive less attention and recognition from politicians than sports heroes.

    Indeed, the Indian PM also tried to put this into perspective vis-a-vis sports wins with the following quote:
    "This achievement is far greater than a cricket win"

    (Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-te...)

  17. Re:Anyone know anything about Radionomy? on Winamp Purchased By Radionomy · · Score: 1

    Audacious has a 'winamp mode' and can do the 'strip' interface just fine. Pretty nice little player overall.

    I don't know if xmms is still around but that's another one that can give you the winamp look.

  18. Shades of the Vodafone case on Nokia Takeover In Jeopardy Due To Alleged $3.4B Tax Bill In India · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This government tried something similar against Vodafone in 2012 but got smacked down, first by the Supreme Court, and then by the Shome committe. The Vodafone case was quite similar because that too involved an M&A scenario and the government was claiming retroactive effect for some new tax laws.

    Vodafone case details:
    http://www.thehindu.com/business/companies/vodafone-wins-rs-11000-cr-tax-case-in-supreme-court/article2817238.ece

    I suspect something similar will happen here and Nokia will settle for a significantly lower amount.

    More details on the Nokia case:
    http://www.thehindu.com/business/nokia-owes-rs21153-cr-it-dept-tells-delhi-hc/article5440948.ece

  19. Shit article on Why There Shouldn't Be a Chess World Champion · · Score: 1

    Hmm ... lets see. The author thinks the incumbent - who looks like a worthy champ to my admittedly unenlightened eyes - is useless and that the challenger shits gold.

    Consequently, he'd like to replace the current system which is subjective but works for other sports (boxing?) and replace it with an equally subjective system so that his favourite challenger will rise to the top sooner than he'd like.

    He then goes on to spout nonsense about what the challenger should do *after* he beats the crap out of the incumbent.

    Duh ... it ain't a done deal, mate. That's why they play!

  20. Re:Stay behind the line! on Anonymous Clashes With D.C. Police During Million Mask March · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Going to jail as a protest isn't much of an option in the US of A. It doesn't matter if you are acquitted, yours chance of gainful employment are shot for good.

    I don't know if *you* would still do it given the chance. I know I wouldn't

  21. Launched on India To Launch Mars Orbiter "Mangalyaan" Tuesday · · Score: 3, Informative

    Early days yet but the launch was apparently successful

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24729073

  22. Re:Priorities? on UN Mounts Asteroid Defense Plan Following Chelyabinsk Meteor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And here's the same tired old argument that we see when a third world country plans a satellite launch. Oh noes ... they don't have enough toilets ... and while they are sorting that, they should just sit around for the next couple of hundred years doing nothing else!

    The UN does have specific hunger and poverty eradication goals and organizations that look into those issues. See these:
    http://www.unicef.org/mdg/poverty.html
    http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtml

    That doesn't mean the UN shouldn't have unrelated committees/arms investigating other issues and see if something can be done to address those.

  23. Re:DOH. Because China's most likely to get screwed on China's State Press Calls For 'Building a De-Americanized World' · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or in short: the US will fulfill its obligations to allies and creditors who've played the game in good faith. To China and others who've gamed the system-- well, that's another story, and in the next days and weeks, we may very well see, what action the US can use, to re-balance the sheets.

    I'm not seeing any evidence to support that. Going by recent history, the US seems perfectly happy to trample over its allies to secure its putative interests.

  24. Re:This is not EU law... on EU Court Holds News Website Liable For Readers' Comments · · Score: 1

    I don't think the European Court of Justice (ECJ) could've have tried this case as you can't appeal decisions of national courts at the ECJ. Hence the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

    Still not a done deal as this verdict can be appealed within a span of three months.

  25. Chilling stuff on NSA Director Wants Threat Data Sharing With Private Sector · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is this guy for real? He's talking about real-time information sharing, obviously with no judicial oversight of any sort, rubber-stamped or otherwise.

    FTFA: “Right now, we can’t see what’s happening in real time. We’ve got to share it with them, and potentially with other countries.”

    Speaking to a crowd of mainly industry and government workers, Alexander appealed to them to help support the information sharing concept and any legislation that may be required to implement it.