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User: OldFish

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Comments · 72

  1. Re:Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith on Classic Books of Science? · · Score: 1

    Phil is in his windup, here comes the pitch, it's a meatball, waist high and ready to go for a ride...

    Yes, Phil, economics IS a real science, like tea leaf reading and astrology.

    Let's call it the Pinnochio Science.

    and I thought "dark matter" was some kind of annoying anomaly, an irritation, one thread out of place in an otherwise carefully woven work of art(science) but noooo, it turns out that it's 95% of matter in the universe or somebody is really wrong about something else...seriously disillusioned in Mountain View.

  2. Well, a modern classic on Classic Books of Science? · · Score: 5, Informative

    Einstein's relativity paper is free:

    http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5001

  3. Re:Just shooot em' on Phoenix Police Seize PCs of a Blogger Critical of the Department · · Score: 1

    Time for the citizenry to turn the tables then, isn't it?

  4. Darned Liberals on MIT To Make All Faculty Publications Open Access · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're setting America on a path to certain destruction. Why how's a good, god-fearing businessman gonna make a buck if he can't do it by reselling publicly funded publications???

    I think the businessmen have tried to close public access to NOAA data too.

  5. Hah! on Cotton Swabs are the Prime Suspect In 8-Year Phantom Chase · · Score: 1

    If this doesn't suggest how hackable hi-tech evidence is then nothing will...

  6. Re:How about this, wise-guy on Texas Vote May Challenge Teaching of Evolution · · Score: 1

    Compulsory religious studies - it'll be part of the fairness doctrine, where all the ideological brainwashers demand access to our children.

  7. ANSWER KEY (Re:Cue the following:) on Texas Vote May Challenge Teaching of Evolution · · Score: 1

    1. False, I've met some very bright people from
                        Texas
    2. True, but it is only one of the reasons
    3. True, more often than not
    4. False, Creationism, ID, it's all the same
                        bullcrap
    5. Possibly, but I'd need to see a complete
                              sentence first
    6. a) True, IDers are certifiable
          b) Deceptive, nobody I know says evolution is
                unassailable, just better supported by
                data than the alternatives offered by
                religious nutballz.
          c) Deceptive, Relativity was not held back by
                dogmatic people, it was held back until
                someone came along who was smart enough to
                see the world differently and express it
                mathematically. Supported by experimental
                evidence, it has become generally accepted.
          d) True, that's why we teach evolution today

  8. Re:Evolution is flawed on Texas Vote May Challenge Teaching of Evolution · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Evolution is not "flawed", it is incomplete, a work in progress. It is adjusted as we go to deal with new data. Unlike the the bible which is inherently not factual and really hasn't seen any progress in centuries.

    Evolution is not taught as fact, it is only perceived by narrow-minded dingwallies as being taught as fact.

    Religion sucks moosebladderthroughahairystraw. All religion.

    That concludes this series of disjointed comments and attacks.

  9. Reason on Study Finds the Pious Fight Death Hardest · · Score: 1

    I would like to think that, as a lifelong non, un and anti-pious person, my choices in an end of life scenario would be ruled by reason. I would not refuse extreme measures if the likely outcome were acceptable, nor would I greedily demand all measures if the likely outcome were unacceptable.

    Define likely, acceptable and unacceptable according to your personal taste.

    I have to admit that I do find the implication in the headline that the pious value life more highly than the non/un/anti-pious to be typical religious bullcrap - they're always buying all the tickets to their own show..

  10. Re:PRIOR ART HERE!!!! on Worlds.com To Extend Virtual World Lawsuit To Second Life, WoW · · Score: 1

    Look up "True Names" and "Neuromancer"

    They're 10 years earlier than Snow Crash

  11. Popular Culture on Worlds.com To Extend Virtual World Lawsuit To Second Life, WoW · · Score: 1

    The earliest virtual worlds I remember were described in Vernor Vinge's "True Names" and William Gibson's "Neuromancer" Don't these count as prior art? How about that silly game Adventure, sure it was only one user when I first saw it but it had other characters and action. How about email lists? Those are multi-user virtual worlds. They have their own community, libraries, written and unwritten rules. Seems like the culture itself has produced sufficient prior art to make the patent absurd.

  12. Energy on Using Lasers and Water Guns To Clean Space Debris · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It was very costly to put all that mass up there - it should be collected and eventually recycled in orbit. Basic physics.

  13. Egads! on Young People Prefer "Sizzle Sounds" of MP3 Format · · Score: 1

    That's like saying you prefer a house that smells like cat piss because you grew up in one or that you prefer your food to be semi-rotten because you didn't have a refrigerator when you were a kid. Gimme a break.

  14. Re:Bill of Rights on Self-Encrypting Hard Drives and the New Security · · Score: 1

    I respectfully disagree. What if I write encrypted documentation on paper? The key is in my memory, only my direct testimony can recover the encrypted contents. The encrypted hard drive case is identical to the encrypted hardcopy document: what you see is what you get. The only physical evidence is the encrypted file, any decrypted content is a product of my testimony, my memory. I think my position is quite solid.

  15. Bill of Rights on Self-Encrypting Hard Drives and the New Security · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just as important as the technology will be the legal framework that applies. Myself, I like the Bill of Rights and I want to see data storage be treated as an extension of my memory with all rights that apply to my testimony extended to the digital media that is protected by a key that is in my memory. I know, naive idealism is dumb.

  16. Duh on Don't Like EULAs? Get Your Cat To Agree To Them · · Score: 1

    Just say it was the cat, who'll ever know you just committed perjury? Besides, my cat just tacitly agrees with everything I say.

  17. Error in Logic on Washington State Wants DNA From All Arrestees · · Score: 1

    To say that DNA sequencing is good technology because it helps solve crimes may be true but there is a fundamental flaw in the logic used to support their Big Brother style plan: they've already caught their suspect without DNA. They should only be allowed to take a DNA sample of a suspect if they are holding DNA evidence that could link someone to the crime. Apart from that, gathering DNA that is unrelated to a specific crime and conducting random searches trying to match to crimes where there is no suspect could be an illegal search. Sure some bad guys will get away but giving too much leeway to authorities is the greater of two evils.

  18. Re:nobel on Making Magnetic Monopoles and Other Physics Exotica · · Score: 1

    Actually, there is already a way of hiding the apparent lack of magnetic monopoles in Maxwell's equations. You can write them in a symmetric form and everything works just fine without the distinction between electric and magnetic monopoles. The lack of monopoles implies that the ratio of magnetic "charge" to electric charge is a constant. The observation of a free monopole could be sorta cool.

  19. This is old news on Silencing a Hard Drive Using Household Items · · Score: 1

    I saw it years ago on MacGuyver.

  20. Re:No problem on James Bond Gadgets · · Score: 1

    Careful, Dude! I think one of Pussy's team was a guy in another life!

  21. Re:Space born virus? on AIDS Virus Now Estimated To Be 100 Years Old · · Score: 1

    Tunguska sounds like an African nation. Probably a muslim one. We should've seen it coming. Damn that pre-911 mentality! We were weak, soft, blind to reality.

  22. Re:Driving the false-positive rate up on Homeland Security Department Testing "Pre-Crime" Detector · · Score: 1

    Q: "Are you planning to bring down the aircraft with an illegal device" A: "Not today, I only attack aircraft on odd numbered Thursdays" Q: "Would you object to being pulled aside and strip searched?" A: "Not at all! In fact, that's why I came here today. By the way, could you use welder's gloves instead of those thin things you usually use?" Q: "Do you hate the United States of America?" A: "No, not lately. I used to hate it a lot but since it started morphing into a fully developed fascist state my affections know no bounds."

  23. Re:I work for this program... on Homeland Security Department Testing "Pre-Crime" Detector · · Score: 1

    The goal is not to let a computer decide if you're a criminal... there are some of us who work for the government who still believe in the Constitution.

    Some, perhaps, but not nearly enough. Worth a listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

  24. Re:You slashdotters tend to be Militant Atheists on Royal Society "Creationist" Resigns · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wrong. I am an irrelevantist. Religion is without value except as a curiosity of human behavioral defects.

  25. Re:WTF? on Royal Society "Creationist" Resigns · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure about the actual facts in this particular case, but I think the scientific position is generally more open to changing itself to fit reality than the religious viewpoint. I see a problem with placing the two viewpoints on the same footing and then deciding that science must accommodate religion as anything other than a curiosity of cultural biology. Mankind has endured enough crap from the religious. Well, and from science too, to be honest, but at least the scientific method offers a future of expanded knowledge and, as we know from one of the finest films ever made, "Knowledge is Good"..