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User: interkin3tic

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  1. Re:Better than the alternatives on Drug Testing In Mice May Be a Waste of Time, Researchers Warn · · Score: 1

    Tissue culture is more expensive than mice in many cases. I'm not sure circulatory systems are well modeled in tissue culture yet anyway. So few agencies would be willing to fund it, they'd say "why don't you just do it in mice." At least, before this study.

  2. Re:How many on Drug Testing In Mice May Be a Waste of Time, Researchers Warn · · Score: 1

    Undoubtedly an extremely small fraction of the number of cases in which the opposite happens: drug shows promise in cell culture or mouse trials, has no effect in humans or is toxic.

  3. Better than the alternatives on Drug Testing In Mice May Be a Waste of Time, Researchers Warn · · Score: 1

    Any volunteers to have doctors intentionally give you blood poisoning, then take experimental drugs to cure it? Keep in mind that a quarter of those TREATED for sepsis will die, and naturally you wouldn't be able to take other treatments or that would cloud the results. So you'll die of sepsis, unless the drugs they're testing kills you first.

    Anyone volunteering, you've clearly got some problems and would be unsuitable to study anyway. And forcing people to participate in the research and letting them die has its own problems.

    Researchers already knew that mice models were far from perfect. Anyone paying any attention to biomedical research knows that if some amazing cure is demonstrated in mice, it will likely never be heard of again since it didn't pan out. It's important to realize if one hadn't already that mice weren't perfect models for humans, but it's also important to realize that drug testing in mice IS necessary.

  4. Re:Odd on EU Data Protection Proposal Taken Word For Word From US Lobbyists · · Score: 1

    Does the "how" really matter? Money has always and will always find influence in politics. You can spend your entire life fighting to close loopholes to try to keep it out, but there will always be more, and new ones opening up. And if you actually close one, your chances of having enough influence to close another one will vanish.

    Anyway, lobbyist money only succeeds in the presence of public apathy. If the voters don't give a shit that US businesses are writing their laws, no law concerning lobbyists is going to keep the businesses from doing so.

  5. Re:Banking passwords are overrated on Everything You Know About Password-Stealing Is Wrong · · Score: 3, Funny

    It puzzles me when I see that people work really hard to come up with difficult passwords for their bank accounts

    And do you see people coming up with such passwords often?

    Most online banking systems intentionally do not even give full account or routing numbers to logged in users, and I've never seen one give out SSN or DOB either.

    Hmm... you're familiar with most banking online systems?

    You almost had me convinced to make a super easy bank password. Nice try, identity thief!

  6. Re:Welcome to Capitalism on Ron Paul Asks UN For Help Geting Control of RonPaul.com Domain From Fans · · Score: 1

    You're playing with semantics. You're taking good parts. If you say social security isn't needed, then lead by example and do without it.

  7. Re:Welcome to Capitalism on Ron Paul Asks UN For Help Geting Control of RonPaul.com Domain From Fans · · Score: 1

    You're not being forced to take the social security payments.

  8. Re:Welcome to Capitalism on Ron Paul Asks UN For Help Geting Control of RonPaul.com Domain From Fans · · Score: 1

    Please read the last part of my one-line post. You have a good case to make the claim that you're forced to pay it, and thus are not a hypocrite. I covered that.

  9. Re:Infallible? on Pope To Resign Citing Advanced Age · · Score: 1

    Two infallible people at the same time would have to agree on everything.

    The Church has a long history of finding their way around such inconsistencies. The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John clearly aren't identical, yet somehow they're all said to be true. and Luke appear to contradict each other on Joseph's lineage for example.

    What I don't understand is is he infallible now? I mean, he admits he can't continue - surely a sign he is not infallible.

    I'm not clear on the theology behind it, but I'm guessing it's something along the lines of he speaks for God, when he does that he's infallible as God is infallible. I know the pope does not always invoke infallibility. In other words, he only maintains that he can't be wrong when he says he can't be wrong.

    Yes, it is goofy, but it's not quite as simple as you're suggesting.

  10. Re:So on Pope To Resign Citing Advanced Age · · Score: 1

    Why is this on Slashdot?

    Because someone submitted it and it didn't get rejected in "firehose" or by an editor.

    Let me pose my own question: did you do anything to keep it off of slashdot?

    Followup question assuming you're in the US: Do you vote in political primaries?

  11. Re:Pull Your Head Out of Your Ass on Pope To Resign Citing Advanced Age · · Score: 2

    Perhaps eldavojohn meant that such people were the cause of a transition to atheism but not the basis for his continued atheism. "I don't know if God exists, but the people who claim to be speaking on his behalf are clearly wrong or at least insane" is probably a common thought that leads one to initially reject a theology, or never take one up in the first place.

    Either that or Eldavojohn was making a minor hyperbole. Or eldavojohn's beliefs aren't purely logical, like most of us.

  12. Re:Welcome to Capitalism on Ron Paul Asks UN For Help Geting Control of RonPaul.com Domain From Fans · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you speak out against something then partake of it, you're still undermining your own credibility unless you have a damn good reason why you're forced to.

  13. Re:Welcome to Capitalism on Ron Paul Asks UN For Help Geting Control of RonPaul.com Domain From Fans · · Score: 1

    Without being familiar with Ayn Rand, I'd guess it was the other things she said beyond "Work in your own self interest." She said more than that one line, right?

  14. Re:Sigh on Over the Antarctic, the Smallest Ozone Hole In a Decade · · Score: 1

    X is bad? Fine. Accurately prove how they are bad, in a way that is relatively easy to proof in a repeatable way. Gimme alternatives that are viable (ie can be realistically implemented in a reasonable manner), that are economic (preferably cheaper, but no more than 5-10% more expensive) that are effective (preferably better, but no more than 5-10% less effiicient).

    The second and third criteria seem a bit artificial. Why not just cost vs benefit? On economics, did you mean factoring in externalized costs? If one were to demonstrate that switching to nuclear from coal would save more money from having to deal with climate change than we'd save by sticking with coal, then the smart move to make would be to switch, unless you're a coal fired power plant owner or remarkably short-sighted. Efficiency makes even less sense to me if you're talking in terms of energy production only. If solar is a fraction of the efficiency but can still meet our needs and is the better alternative, then we should switch.

  15. Re:One can't be 100% transparent on The Paradox of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks · · Score: 1

    Indeed. It's a bit like accusing the police of having double standards. "What? You get to carry a gun wherever you go but when I do it I get arrested for bank robbery!?!?!"

  16. Re:Speaking of "Smear Campaigns"... on MS Targets Google With Another Smear Campaign · · Score: 1

    That's not a difference between google or MS though. That's adblocking software, which works fine with google as well.

  17. Re:Speaking of "Smear Campaigns"... on MS Targets Google With Another Smear Campaign · · Score: 2

    Yes it would have. The (unfortunately large) subset of voters that is mainly concerned with whether an official is a good spouse or member of his or her religion are not the people who are ever going to care about important things. Such people aren't interested in politics, they're interested in celebrities, or in feeling good about their own morality. If the media were to stop all reporting of politicians screwing around, those morons would simply increase the attention they pay to reality TV stars screwing around. The other subset of voters who are concerned with the "things that matter" already don't care about politicians having sex.

  18. Re:Speaking of "Smear Campaigns"... on MS Targets Google With Another Smear Campaign · · Score: 1

    Is it a "Smear Campaign" if it's true?

    I think so, yes. Context is important. In the Assange case, it's true that he's being charged with rape. "Assange is wanted for rape!" is true, but it's a smear campaign. They leave out that it was consensual at the time and that Swedish rape laws are weird.

    With google, "they read your mail!!!" is a smear campaign even though it's arguably true. For instance, MS is probably going to avoid the subjects of "Is it reading if it's automated and no one ever sees your e-mails, and only the keywords are used to target ads at you" and, more importantly "Does MS do the exact same things?"

  19. Re:Take a look at that statue of liberty. on European Court Finds Copyright Doesn't Automatically Trump Freedom Of Expression · · Score: 2

    Default settings? You mean 3/5ths compromise, senators being appointed rather than elected, and white men are the only ones who get to vote? Well, no, we haven't tried that... You think that would help?

  20. Re:News for Nerds??!! on Email Trails Show Bankers Behaving Badly · · Score: 2

    Can you imagine what would happen to sentencing guidelines if we decided 'fuck this shit' and started punishing large scale fraud with the same sorts of time-per-thousand-dollars-stolen that we do for blue-collar economic crimes?

    I'd imagine that they'd come up with a less-than-ten-word mantra to make it sound like a very bad idea to enough people. Actually, it seems like two word catchphrases are bigger these days. Death panels, job creators...

    There are also probably real reasons why that would be a bad idea, ones that would not be brought up in the campaign to defeat such a bill. Such as "some scapegoat would always take the fall rather than the real criminals, as already happens, because our justice system sucks compared to what we think it should be, especially when it comes to rich people."

    So I don't think that magic bullet would ever come to pass, nor do I think it would be a magic bullet.

  21. Re:I'm pretty sure it doesn't work on China's Radical New Space Drive · · Score: 1

    Seems like your story proves you don't have to be a crackpot to fail to make a deal. Perhaps this guy simply made the same mistake Robertson did: asked for more than he was ever going to get.

  22. I think you can drop those qualifiers.

  23. Re:I Got It! on Deloitte: Use a Longer Password In 2013. Seriously. · · Score: 1

    Er... why do your kids' laptops have biometric readers on them? Are they that concerned the school bully is going to steal their homework?

  24. Re:Two factor authentication on Deloitte: Use a Longer Password In 2013. Seriously. · · Score: 1
    The SUMMARY mentions that. Last line. Not talking about the fucking article, the summary:

    Multifactor authentication strategies, such as phone texts, iris scans, and dongles are also likely to become more widespread, especially by banks

    +4 insightful?

    TLDR: yes.

  25. Re:I Got It! on Deloitte: Use a Longer Password In 2013. Seriously. · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Naive question, does anyone still brute force attack passwords? Are there websites out there that will allow you to try more than, say ten times before locking your account? If you're talking about the difference between 10 million different passwords and 4 billion, but facebook will lock down your account after 20 tries, there's not really a significant difference between the two. It seems like my accounts are always being locked down due to trying the wrong password from trying to "brute force" using every password I remember.