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User: Kurrel

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Comments · 52

  1. Re:Makes no sense on Only 22% of California 8th Graders Pass National Science Test · · Score: 1

    Those states are also ALL in the top 6 for lowest average teacher salaries. The causation is clear.

  2. Re:Makes no sense on Only 22% of California 8th Graders Pass National Science Test · · Score: 1

    You think those unions have more of an effect than the fact that American society doesn't want to raise scientists and nerds? More important than the ever-slipping knowledge requirements for a given grade? Every couple of years we teach a certain age group even less than we used to, and increase the best incomes on the planet for managers and athletes. Culturally we foster ideas like, "you don't need to know this algebra" or "truth is about what you feel is right" or "if anyone makes you feel bad, just sue".
    The military gets over fifteen times the federal funding that education does, because state and local taxes are supposed to pay for it? Thank god we are keeping with the resigned "some areas just deserve shitty schools" position; it really paints us as the most developed country.

  3. Re:How is this a representative sample? on Why Forbes Says Immigrants Make Better Entrepreneurs · · Score: 1

    Yeah, that movie gave me the courage to upgrade from a lowly window-peeper to the full-time, restraining-order-crossing stalker of Marissa Tomei I am today.

  4. Re:Stupid? on Universities Hold Transcripts Hostage Over Loans · · Score: 1

    How wise is it to not exercise the only collateral you have to get paid on what you are owed?

    When you take out a student loan, are you pocketing the cash? No, you are immediately paying your tuition. The schools are owed nothing, they are extorting on behalf of the lender.

  5. Re:First "Me too"? on Microsoft Buys 800 AOL Patents For $1 Billion · · Score: 2

    I always took the swaths of free mailed coasters as a sign that my friends and I should drink more.

  6. Re:Attention on Maybe the FAA Gadget Ban On Liftoff and Landing Isn't So Bad · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, it is very difficult to PROVE that your consumer electronics will not interfere with the avionics. It is even more difficult to prove that the other 150 passengers' electronics will not do so, when they are all broadcasting different packets at different frequencies. Obviously, for an organization in charge of this sort of thing (FAA), the only easy choice is to say, "Do not use wireless transceivers during the most critical points of flight." No, breaking this rule doesn't bring down the craft. But guess how many on-board cell phones the plane is rated for? Zero.

  7. Re:What about weed? on Sweden Moving Towards Cashless Economy · · Score: 1

    Sell treasure maps to bags of 'potpourri' or 'green tea' on ebay?

  8. Re:Plausible deniability... on FBI Tries To Force Google To Unlock User's Android Phone · · Score: 1

    I have seen this tragic attitude on Native American reservations as well. The parents openly ridicule education and root for their children to fail, so that they will stay at home for their entire lives. It is a terrible cycle and is yet another contributing factor to the cultural suicide they seem intent on committing.

  9. Re:What about the wrongly accused? on Study Finds Online Cheating Is Infectious · · Score: 3

    Back in the Counter-strike heyday, my friend would commonly get banned from a server after a few rounds for cheating. All he had was surround-sound headphones and the fast-twitch accuracy of a Korean but I'd get banned by association. Being labelled a cheater doesn't prove guilt; why wouldn't they use VAC analysis rather than hearsay?

  10. Re:Mod parent Informative! on P2P and P2P Links Ruled Legal In Spain · · Score: 1

    And the 'disable scores' check-box does nothing but fix it.

  11. Re:Why didn't the virtual fence work? on The Death of the US-Mexico Virtual Fence · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's exactly as vague as where all the money went. How strange.

  12. Re:download.com on Best Resource For Identifying Legit Applications? · · Score: 1

    By testing it in a sandbox, of course! Here's a super-nifty free binary analyzer that runs in your browser: http://anubis.iseclab.org/

  13. Re:A CGI Flynn? on How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Music · · Score: 1

    While we've had plenty of CG characters visually designed from scratch, it's a far cry to say that we're near being able to synthesize their voices. Even our most carefully-crafted synthesized characters (Wall-E, GLaDOS) used augmented human recordings!

  14. Re:In other news... on Comcast to Buy 51% of NBC, GE Goes After 49% · · Score: 1

    For those who want to sign a probably-ineffective petition, http://www.freepress.net/comcast

  15. Re:What the hell? on Suspect Freed After Exposing Cop's Facebook Status · · Score: 1

    That experiment was not testing sadism, as the subject was instructed to continue shocking the 'test taker' by an authority figure. The clear result was that people do whatever they're told.

  16. Re:Sure, and then.... on Let the Games Be Doped · · Score: 1

    Because things like stock car racing have absolutely no advertising going on? Sponsors don't have to influence the sport in the slightest to make truckloads of money.

  17. Re:Toothpaste on Effective Optical Disc Repair? · · Score: 1

    I believe it's old Playstation games that can't take a 48x drive without sharding your drive up.

  18. Not the most exploited site on Google Blogger "Hosts 2% of World's Malware" · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd like to see what percentage of infections were facilitated through MySpace, but that would require omniscience just as this figure does.

  19. Re:Seriously? on Efficiency? Think Racing Cars, Not Hybrids · · Score: 1

    Minivans also rip open at the slightest suggestion of a crash.

  20. Re:No on Boy Scouts Ask Open Source Community For Help · · Score: 1

    Having been raised LDS, Scout participation was as required as the rest (seminary, sunday school, priesthood, etc.). This was mostly a function of my parents. After moving to Utah, though, it became the expectation of the entire community and they put as much effort into getting boys to go as with any other inactive--anyone familiar with the church's methods of retention know just how persistent this can be.

    I was gradually shunned because word got around that I wasn't devout anymore.

  21. Re:where is the power of two on AMD's Triple-Core Phenom X3 Processor Launched · · Score: 1

    Where do you live that college algebra isn't a re-hashing of high school math?

  22. Re:No permadeath on World of Warcraft - Wrath Of the Lich King Is In Alpha · · Score: 1

    Diablo 2 implemented it and it got more people to play it longer. Though I agree it generally makes people grind more and take very little risks, you can't really say it's not an option for games anymore.

  23. Re:Not Faster on Strict Order Boarding Would Get Planes in the Sky Faster · · Score: 1

    You must have been to the Dallas/Ft.Worth airport before.

  24. Re:Just finished Jurassic Park on Researchers Discover Gene That Blocks HIV · · Score: 1

    Life does indeed find a way--I'm not sure why one would only include humanity in the somewhat-larger set of living things, but it certainly appears HIV has found a way.

  25. Re:"a clinic" in Cleveland? on Google to Begin Storing Patients' Health Records · · Score: 1

    "Best investigative reporting on the planet" is referring to the tabloids.