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User: Chris+Mattern

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Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:A taste of things to come? on France Cries Foul At World Cup "Spy Drone" · · Score: 1

    Nah, just use a high-pressure spray gun and paint the whole drone to get the camera.

  2. Re:And hippies will protest it on "Super Bananas" May Save Millions of Lives In Africa · · Score: 1

    The main thing to remember here as there's ramen--as in what's sold in actual Japanese ramen shops--and then there's "ramen"--what you get in a Cup o' Noodles. There's almost no relation between the two. Not only do you not get all the fresh additional ingredients in "ramen", the noodles themselves are total crap, the broth is crap even for instant boullion, and the whole thing is about as tasty and nutritious as cardboard. It bears no relation to real ramen. In the west, there aren't many real ramen shops and all we know is "ramen".

  3. Re:Thyroid condition ? Doubtful. on EU's Top Court May Define Obesity As a Disability · · Score: 1

    Huh? Plants absorb nutrients from the soil.

    More to the point, they absorb CO2 from the air. Where we eat carbohydrates, plants photosynthesize that CO2. That's how they "eat".

  4. "Safety Requirements"? on California Regulators Tell Ride-Shares No Airport Runs · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why is it not safe for them to drive to the airports, but it's safe for them to drive elsewhere? Are they going to hit a plane or something?

  5. Re:Why? on Google Engineer: We Need More Web Programming Languages · · Score: 3, Funny

    Note that Gilad Bracha is working on Newspeak, which will probably be as close to an ideal web language as one could hope for - once it's finished - and not only in the matter of containment.

    It's doubleplusgood!

  6. Perhaps the headline would be less confusing on Uber Demonstrations Snarl Traffic In London, Madrid, Berlin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If it read, "*Anti-*Uber Demonstrations Snarl Traffic..."

  7. I predict... on Project Un1c0rn Wants To Be the Google For Lazy Security Flaws · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If it's actually useful in uncovering sites with security defects, the owners will all be facing criminal indictments before the year is out.

  8. Re:My Arrogant Suggestion on Teacher Tenure Laws Ruled Unconstitutional In California · · Score: 1

    Very well, I'll hand the ball back to you. What metric *should* we use to judge teacher performance?

  9. Re:My Arrogant Suggestion on Teacher Tenure Laws Ruled Unconstitutional In California · · Score: 1

    According to Diane Ravitch (and pretty much everybody else who has studied the data) the one factor that most strongly predicts standardized test scores (and their delta) is family income. That wipes out every other factor. Once you've done the demographic correction, the effect of the teacher is too small to be measured.

    So you're telling us teachers don't matter and we can manage them in whatever way costs us the least money. That's good to know.

  10. Re:I'm actually not sure it makes much sense at al on Teacher Tenure Laws Ruled Unconstitutional In California · · Score: 1

    Research also requires funding. A tenured professor wanting to do unpopular research might not get fired, but he won't get funding, either. So the research doesn't happen.

  11. Re:China anyone? on Greenland Is Getting Darker · · Score: 1

    Empty ridicule. The last defense of the man who has run out of arguments.

  12. Re:China anyone? on Greenland Is Getting Darker · · Score: 1

    But you are not talking about a tax equally applied to all items. You are talking about a tax, and I quote, "in which goods are taxed based on where the parts are from." That's taxes being paid by an imported item that aren't paid by domestic items. That's a tariff.

  13. Re:Are you guys too young or what? on Whom Must You Trust? · · Score: 2
  14. Re:Whom you trust ... ? on Whom Must You Trust? · · Score: 0

    I don't know what this "grammarbook" you're using is, but I suggest you stop using it, 'cause it's crap. "Whom" is used when the word the object of a sentence, as it is here. Its position in the sentence as such is irrelevant. The title is completely correct.

  15. Re:What did you expect? on UK Seeks To Hold Terrorism Trial In Secret · · Score: 1

    there are no democratical foundations in this country

    But over here, we're all democraticalismists!

  16. Re:Not The First Time on UK Seeks To Hold Terrorism Trial In Secret · · Score: 1

    No, right. Because that's not British legal history, it's *English* legal history. The Star Chamber was abolished in 1640. Britain as a legal and political entity didn't exist until the Act of Union in 1707.

  17. Prior art on MIT Working On Robotic Limbs That Attach To Shoulders, Waist · · Score: 1

    It's been done before.

  18. Re: This research should receive enormous funding. on Scientists Find Method To Reliably Teleport Data · · Score: 1

    Quantum teleportation can not be used for traditional communications.

    Quantum teleportation can not be used for traditional communications *by itself*. It is possible to set up a situation where you combine QT with traditional transmission so that both the QT and the transmission are required to receive the data. Relativity is observed, as you don't have the data until you get the speed of light transmission. But you get QT's security, as intercepting just the tranmission won't yield anything.

  19. Re:Over my fucking dead body on Amazon Wants To Run Your High-Performance Databases · · Score: 1

    It's a condition that gets you ostracized among dead people

    Most of them won't even speak to you.

  20. Re:Bah, we already said goodbye to CTRL-S years ag on Goodbye, Ctrl-S · · Score: 1

    Only if you're finished. If you're still working but want to save your progress, :w is what you want.

  21. Re:what the fuck? on The World's Worst Planes: Aircraft Designs That Failed · · Score: 1

    "Sorry, you didn't pay for this, so you can't see it. Only other people can see it. Well, they didn't pay for it either, but it's the *principle* of the thing, y'see?"

  22. Re:Wrong Tactics, Weapons on The World's Worst Planes: Aircraft Designs That Failed · · Score: 1

    Correct. It was not only a question of fighter speed (though it was true that some bombers were faster than any fighter in service at that time). It took radio-vectored interceptors, preferably with intelligence from a radar station network, to stop bombers. None of that existed when Baldwin made that statement.

  23. Re:Does not matter on The World's Worst Planes: Aircraft Designs That Failed · · Score: 2

    Just remembered: how come nobody mentioned this one?

    Perhaps you meant this. Remember, preview is your friend!

  24. Re:Hell Yes! on It's Time For the Descent Games Return · · Score: 2

    But I think it was made to plug into the old game controller ports that don't exist anymore. Or maybe it was the old serial ports... that don't exist anymore.

    But adapters do exist to plug those things into a USB port.

  25. Re:Does it give you a position on the globe? on Is It Really GPS If It Doesn't Use Satellites? · · Score: 1

    A map gives you a position on a globe.

    Okay, I've got my map of Beleriand from the Silmarillion right here. How do a get a position on a globe from this? (Keep in mind that this is a map of a world that quite literally flat)