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Comments · 161

  1. Amazon sucks anyway. on Authors' Amazon Awareness · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Great idea: go to a BOOKSTORE and buy a copy. Even better? Get one at a locally owned shop. Book-buying is better in person: browsing shelves, reading through a few pages, checking out your favorite section, then finding that rare gem that you'd have never seen on Amazon anyway.

  2. Re:Mid-range time in the lab on Students, the Other Unprotected Lab Animals · · Score: 1

    I don't know if it's overconfidence so much as getting lazy.

    Agreed - there's also the possibility of the classic grad student folly: understanding everything in the mind without having the mastered the nuances of technique...

  3. Re:School vs Industry on Students, the Other Unprotected Lab Animals · · Score: 2, Informative

    You have no idea what you are talking about. Go get your degree in organic chemistry and then do at least a Master's thesis before you continue to pretend. "Fancy Shmancy?" You are a fucking idiot. I know I'm going to pay for that, but it needs to be said.

    I agree with you... no labcoat would have protected her with something as nasty as t-BuLi...

  4. Re:School vs Industry on Students, the Other Unprotected Lab Animals · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ms. Sangji was probably one lab coat away from being saved, and those are cheap.

    A lab coat would have done little good with something that burns as hot and fast as t-BuLi - this was literally a case of inexperience and carelessness (she had a stopper in her syringe, as most safety protocols would dictate, but it somehow came out and splashed into the open air) combined with extremely volatile (splashed into the open air) heat juice.

  5. Re:School vs Industry on Students, the Other Unprotected Lab Animals · · Score: 1

    there's either a loose connection or they are unrelated.

    They are unrelated, with a loose connection being attempted through the quoted assertion.

  6. Re:School vs Industry on Students, the Other Unprotected Lab Animals · · Score: 1

    It's also no mystery that the left primarily dominates the colleges

    It's also no mystery where you get your information. The so-called "studies" that are cited to prove this presumption have sample populations skewed heavily toward the humanities, the (gasp!) "liberal arts." The rebuttals to these refuted pseudo-scientific studies (conducted by right wing think tanks) show that in most STEM disciplines (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math), the tilt is almost invisible.

    How are you justifying your ideological rant (minimum wage, welfare, bawwww!) when the question here is one of experience? There's almost no connection between your assertion and the loose concoction of evidence you supply. Turning this into a two-sides infotainment panel discussion will do nothing but ensure stagnation where actual reasoned discussion is needed.

  7. Re:Simple Solution. on College Papers Won't Rewrite History For Alumni · · Score: 1

    I agree - an accidental Google search can reveal some startling things that - a decade ago, before the mass digitization of the world had started to really archive stuff - would have no longer mattered. The problem is that instead of viewing information gleaned from mediated sources with a judicious, reasoned eye, we've become accustomed to playing "Gotcha!" -- even on those who are themselves ultimately inconsequential.

    To anyone so very concerned about a loss of social status based upon decades-old infomation, as well as those who believe that the petty actions of a long-gone teenager define the character and worth of a fully grown and emotionally developed adult, I offer the following:

    Choose a dozen random 18-20 year old American males. Place them two to a room in very close quarters, with little supervision by those they consider authority figures. Watch for a year and see how many have defaced or destroyed something extremely valuable, gotten into a fight, stolen things from public venues for fun, played laser tag with a nail gun, or done any of the other infinitely stupid things we've all heard friends talk about.

    At that age, the tribal instinct is so strong that it really only takes one strong voice and the sight of more than one follower to begin a cascade of events leading to something asinine, dangerous, illegal, or all three. More interesting is that these young men are evolutionarily likely to bond best with one another precisely because they are engaged in a dangerous or arduous endeavor: they're at the same stage of development (albeit much farther along) as members of tribes from time immemorial who are kicked out to go kill stuff together until they're grown up enough to contribute more than dead animals.

  8. You're Awesome. on College Papers Won't Rewrite History For Alumni · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't want your stupid college actions preserved forever? Don't do stupid things!

    Thanks for your "insightful" words (great job, mods)! I'll be sure to relay that information to myself as a 19 year old the next time I'm twelve years in the past.

  9. Re:Even the criminals have rights on Nesson & Camara Increase Attack Against RIAA · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh dear god, kindly fuck off. Copyright is an amoral law that concentrates power over culture into the hands of profiteering publishers.

    Copyright is based on precedent, one that originally promoted original art. Once upon a time, anyone with a printing press could take someone's work and make a book. Authors were getting screwed, particularly overseas authors: American publishers were printing Dickens without paying royalties and British houses were doing likewise to Melville (one reason he died a pauper - he was vastly more popular in Britain, but never saw a cent for his books printed there). Establishing Copyright and an international treaty made it possible for artists to make a buck. Like any law, it needs retooling, but to dismiss the concept of copyright as amoral is puerile.

  10. Re:Linux on NSA Wages Cyberwar Against US Armed Forces Teams · · Score: 1

    Let's not forget: some governmental job series in some agencies (like NSA cyberdefense) can offer healthy salaries in addition to top secret technologies to the people they want to attract. Also, whoever implied that the NSA would be as incompetent as, say, the Veterans Administration (lost records & break-ins) couldn't have been thinking clearly.

  11. You're right on Bloggers Impacting the World of Litigation · · Score: 1

    Lawyers have really managed to convince the population at large that they their art is magic... when in fact they ultimately do something directly analogous to what I did in high school speech: do some research and present an opinion in a persuasive manner. Persuasiveness is much more important than having good evidence in both cases. Hardly something that makes one into a socially unquestionable demigod.

    You know, you're partly right. A number of law schools hire prominent rhetoricians to teach logic and argument (it does make sense - the discipline of rhetoric evolved from Greek legal practices and the Sophists, who trained people how to argue for various public purposes).

    Stanley Fish, who became fairly well known in academic circles for his contributions to English literary criticism, began applying his rhetorical methods to public policy and law, and eventually was hired as a professor of both English and Law at Duke. He has left English altogether now, becoming the Dean of the Law School at Florida International University. He does not have a law degree (only a Ph.D. in English) yet taught at one of the nation's top tier law schools (Duke). From what I gather, he's not the only one: law schools need people to teach a specialized brand of argument that can dissect and then repurpose the words of others.

  12. Re:Little OT Anecdote on Unclean Military Hard Drives Sold On eBay · · Score: 1

    Why's it gotta be a Black contractor, man? You racist?

  13. Re:Emulation on Piracy and the PSP · · Score: 1

    Very fitting -- especially on this, the 20th Anniversary of the Game Boy.

  14. Re:Of course it's piracy's fault on Piracy and the PSP · · Score: 1

    What's really funny (I was thinking about this above), is that I get better gameplay from an old Game Boy (Happy 20th Anniversary) than I ever have from a PSP...

  15. Re:RIAA is a criminal organization on RIAA Brief Attacks Free Software Foundation · · Score: 1

    Their "lack of proper remuneration" to lesser known artists follows the letter of a contract (a legal document) signed by the artist. There is a reason that the first contract they hand you is known as a "dummy" contract. Further, since when is proposing a law a criminal act?

    So far, you've accused the RIAA of thoughtcrime -- something of which, following your logic and reversing the point of view, you might be engaging in as well.

    I'm no fan of the RIAA, but engaging in manichean discourse won't convince anyone to come around to your point of view. Demonization is the end of civil debate, which is ultimately the only means by which this issue can be resolved.

  16. Re:Only Terrorists... on RIAA Brief Attacks Free Software Foundation · · Score: 1
    I agree, and it irks me when people blather on about our founders & democratic principles. Here's the citation, people:

    Article IV, Section 4 - Republican Government
    The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government...

  17. Re:Of course we don't need running shoes on Do We Need Running Shoes To Run? · · Score: 4, Funny

    Even better for runners in training, there are plenty of fast predators available.

  18. Re:you just think you're joking. on Do We Need Running Shoes To Run? · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    The thing that bugs me about the arguments about intelligent design is all the pot-shots taken at bad religious arguments

    ID is a religious argument, despite what its proponents might have you believe. The intelligent design of life cannot be grounded in observable phenomena, and thus cannot be regarded as scientific.

  19. Re:sure it is on College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior · · Score: 1

    I wasn't criticizing you, just the original offender. Quotation without interpretation shows me that someone hasn't bothered to truly make the effort to understand his position, which annoys me to no end.

  20. Re:sure it is on College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior · · Score: 1

    I said nothing about "liberty." I did imply, however, that people needed to learn to think and speak for themselves. To "understand" something means that one can move beyond the quotation and into interpretation. What a dullard.

  21. Re:sure it is on College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior · · Score: 1

    But unlike speech, you can print out what you see online.

    Your newspaper likely originates in digital format, as well: people enter their stories on a computer, correct? From there, they're posted online and printed.

    Congratulations on your journalism classes. I'm sure they provided you with a solid foundation in tort law.

  22. Re:sure it is on College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Seriously, pulling out the founding fathers over the campus Barney Fifes? Pathetic. If you can't come up with an argument without quoting trite, overused phrases from Bartlett's book of quotations, keep your trap shut.

  23. Re:I have a feeling.... on Vista Post-SP2 Is the Safest OS On the Planet · · Score: 0, Troll

    Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.

    Do you have this signature because you often post comments that are stupid and/or wrong? MS doesn't have to support "things" (great word, there, jockstrap) because it's financial suicide for "things" to not develop Windows drivers.

  24. Re:I have a feeling.... on Vista Post-SP2 Is the Safest OS On the Planet · · Score: 1

    Thank you for your stunning observation. We'd probably have never cleared that up without your assistance.

  25. Not sure it's relevant on FBI Is the Worst FOIA Performer · · Score: 1

    I'd be willing to be that they're also the recipient of more FOIA requests than any other two agencies combined. If that's so, then this may be as meaningless a statistic as any other. In addition, I'm sure that many of the requests relate to the late 1960s - which won't be found anyway.