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User: Chris+Mattern

Chris+Mattern's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:Herodotus' History on Flying Snake Mysteries Revealed · · Score: 1

    Hippopotamus itself is Greek for "river horse".

  2. Re:Secret back door? on EU Secretly Plans To Put a Back Door In Every Car By 2020 · · Score: 1

    My car already has a back door, I prefer to call it a "trunk" due to some obscure chain of etymology that (sadly) has nothing to do with elephants.

    Silly boy, this story's from Britain. You need to call it a "boot" (which has a chain of etymology that does in fact involve footwear).

  3. Re:The End on EU Secretly Plans To Put a Back Door In Every Car By 2020 · · Score: 1

    And so it begins.

    It is too late for the pebbles to vote.

  4. Re:Herodotus' History on Flying Snake Mysteries Revealed · · Score: 1

    No, hippopotamuses.

  5. Re:Learn to freaken drive. on Atlanta Gambled With Winter Storm and Lost · · Score: 1

    What the OP means is that your 4-wheel drive will not magically enable you to stop on snow and ice like it was dry pavement. Many people in 4-wheel drive vehicles seem to be under the impression that it gives them an exemption from all the laws of physics.

  6. Re:As an environmentalist and (former) Obama fan. on Edward Snowden Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize · · Score: 1

    Does that mean we get to time travel four times?

  7. Re:Obama on Edward Snowden Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize · · Score: 1

    Just out of curiosity, I looked up who *did* win the Nobel in 1938. It was the Nansen International Office for Reguees. Did them a lot of good; they closed shop that year. No Nobel Peace Prize was awarded 1939-1943 (1944 went to the Red Cross).

  8. Re:As an environmentalist and (former) Obama fan. on Edward Snowden Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, Snowden's not Bush either, so that settles it. He should get one.

  9. Re:Multiple credit cards on Developer Loses Single-Letter Twitter Handle Through Extortion · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nothing, really, since the bank will eat the costs of the fraud. It's annoying, yes, and it's a bit of a hassle, but generally you aren't buying much of value for that $3.

    For Mr. Hiroshima, that $3 would have apparently bought him continued ownership of his single-letter Twitter account.

  10. Re:Write once? on Facebook Puts 10,000 Blu-ray Discs In Low-Power Storage System · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When you delete your account, somebody will go and get the corresponding disk, copy it (except your data), and destroy the old disk.

    Except they won't. Facebook doesn't delete your data when you delete you account *now*, what makes you think they'll do it when it becomes this much harder?

  11. Re:What assholes on Oracle Broadens Legal Fight Against Third-party Solaris Support Providers · · Score: 1

    SPARC will take Solaris with it. Sun never treated x86-64 Solaris well, but Oracle is just flat-out ignoring it . It's dying even faster than SPARC Solaris.

  12. Re:Hello I'm british on Surrey Hit With Catnado · · Score: 1

    Tornadoes can happen *anywhere*. However, some places are more likely to get them than others; the American midwest is the most likely place, by a fairly wide margin. Meteorologists are are not entirely certain why.

  13. Re:"The Justin Bieber of chess" ?! on 23-Year-Old Chess Grandmaster Whips Bill Gates In 71 Seconds · · Score: 1

    I'd pick number 2. Number 3 is unlikely, and numbers 1 and 4 are just untrue, as Tata Steel is indeed a large Indian steel manufacturer.

  14. Re:Big deal. on 23-Year-Old Chess Grandmaster Whips Bill Gates In 71 Seconds · · Score: 2

    If his facts are true as stated, he appears to have an unassailable case. Are disputing them? You have yet to state any evidence for your side of the argument.

  15. Re:Big deal. on 23-Year-Old Chess Grandmaster Whips Bill Gates In 71 Seconds · · Score: 2

    Yes but they don't memorize them.

    Actually, yes, they do. Memorization (particularly of opening variations) is very much a part of chess mastery.

  16. Re:Big deal. on 23-Year-Old Chess Grandmaster Whips Bill Gates In 71 Seconds · · Score: 1

    As has been previously pointed out, it was a Rapid Chess game, with strict time limits. Also, the GM undoubtedly intentionally led Gates into some particularly trappy opening. There are opening lines that can result in a very rapid loss if you make a misstep that is not at all obvious over the board. Grandmasters, of course, have many such lines memorized, and know how to avoid the lines they don't know backwards and forwards.

  17. Re: Waste of money on More Bad News For the F-35 · · Score: 1

    Yes, nuclear subs are very noisy compared to diesels running on batteries. That disadvantage is minor compared to their ability to remain submerged indefinitely and their ability to move at high speeds while submerged.

  18. Re: Waste of money on More Bad News For the F-35 · · Score: 1

    You said "stealth bomber" not "stealth fighter". Not that that invalidates your point, but it does mean I was searching in the wrong place.

    However, it's still just one. Not "stealth bombers" plural, let alone "with inpunity". I do not think one lucky shot makes your case.

  19. Re:Giant F-ing Boondoggle on More Bad News For the F-35 · · Score: 2

    And Boeing swooped in to "merge" with McDonnel and purchase an admittance ticket to the lucrative (but risky) Military Contracts party, which they hadn't been invited to previously.

    Boeing had had lots of military contracts, but mostly transports like the C-17 and adaptations of their airliners like the E-6. Their last bomber had been the B-52. Merging with McDonnell got them back into the bomber business and into fighters for the first time since before WWII (the P-26 Peashooter had been a Boeing).

  20. Re:Waste of money on More Bad News For the F-35 · · Score: 1

    The 90% losses for the Germans is, I believe, correct. It should be remembered, however, that most of those losses were towards the end of the war, facing steeply unfavorable odds (in particular, massive Allied air supremacy). As far as I can determine, the US lost 52 subs out of a force of 300 S-class and fleet boats, not counting the older R-class and O-class, which didn't see combat.

    Of course, all of these subs, Germans and US, were diesel subs. Nuclear subs are a very different beast.

  21. Re: Waste of money on More Bad News For the F-35 · · Score: 1

    On the other hand small but well trained and moderately well equipped enemies have been able to shoot down stealth bombers with impunity in the past.

    My brief search on the internet has failed to uncover any stealth bomber ever shot down by anybody. Admittedly, it was not in-depth research. Perhaps you can enlighten me as to by whom, when, and where this feat was accomplished.

  22. Re:Learn something about the Falklands on More Bad News For the F-35 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Settling land is not a legitimate way to take it from another country.

    Arguable only when the other country ever had the land.

    Argentina has at least an arguable claim that the land was occupied and that the settlement is illegal.

    No, they don't. Argentina has *never* owned the Falklands. Or else identify the period when the independent country of Argentina ruled over it.

  23. Re:Actually... on Facebook Mocks 'Infection' Study, Predicts Princeton's Demise · · Score: 1

    Quick! We'll have to steal Druidia's air!

  24. Re:Teach the students what a library is on Ask Slashdot: How To Reimagine a Library? · · Score: 2

    Did you notice that the middle F-14 has kill marks on the side? Apparently he's bagged two triceritops.

  25. Re:Categorize your books differently, sir on Ask Slashdot: How To Reimagine a Library? · · Score: 1

    Books should also be categorized on *how* we read a book, not always on *what* we read.

    That makes no sense. Given that each person reads a book differently, there is no way to categorize a book for multiple people based on *how* it is read, because no two people will agree on how it is read.