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User: paiute

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Comments · 2,289

  1. Really, Nature? on The Hidden Reality Draws Ire From Physicists · · Score: 1

    "Greene's book is more theory than fact"?

    Just stop it. A theory is built of facts. You are just feeding the 'evolution is just a theory' trolls.

  2. Reminds me of the deer that got away on Kilogram Gets Controversial; Why Not Split the Difference? · · Score: 5, Funny

    A physicist, engineer and a statistician are out hunting. Suddenly, a deer appears 50 yards away.

    The physicist does some basic ballistic calculations, assuming a vacuum, lifts his rifle to a specific angle, and shoots. The bullet lands 5 yards short.

    The engineer adds a fudge factor for air resistance, lifts his rifle slightly higher, and shoots. The bullet lands 5 yards long.

    The statistician yells "We got him!"

  3. Re:Oh, I laughed when I read this on Spam Text Prematurely Blows Up Suicide Bomber · · Score: 3, Interesting

    On Okinawa, the Marines attacking Sugar Loaf Hill were under the threat of surprise attack 24/7. The stress and lack of rest took a toll, and after a week or so the troops were mentally and physically in very bad shape. One squad was cautiously advancing in daylight when two or three Japanese came running and screaming out of hiding. One was arming a grenade - which were activated by striking it against a hard surface. The Japanese were trained to hit them against their helmets. But the grenades had a high rate of failure, and this one went off in the soldier's hand, blowing off his head. His corpse continued on a step or two and then sank twitching to the ground. The Marines, who under normal circumstances would have been horrified by this sight, thought it the funniest thing they had ever seen and were helpless with laughter for quite some time. Luckily the attack on them was not followed up for a while.

  4. Community standards on What Exactly Is a Galaxy? · · Score: 3, Funny

    I know a galaxy when I see one.

  5. Buyer's remorse on Sizing Up the Daedalus Interstellar Spacecraft · · Score: 2

    The problem is that if one undertakes a huge project to build a big ass ship and it launches, one hundred years later the technology will have advanced so much that we will be able to build another one which is bigger and faster. A hundred years later, the same thing. So the original ship gets to where it was going only to find that several ships are already there.

    I dimly recall some science fiction works with this theme.

  6. Re:It's worse then that. on How Chrysler's Battery-Less Hybrid Minivan Works · · Score: 1

    ...your typical minivan driver thinks one or the other pedal has to be pressed flat to the floor at all times.

    This guy agrees:

    http://www.gusmahon.org/html/Mini.htm

  7. Not much of a test on Russian Simulated Mars Mission Close To 'Landing' · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, it's a trip to Mars - minus the lack of gravity, minus the cosmic radiation, minus the occasional pebble whizzing by at thousands of miles per hour, minus the constant knowledge that a few millimeters of metal alloy separates you from pretty much instant death at all times.

    It's the take home test of space travel.

  8. Farm report just in on Open Source More Expensive Says MS Report · · Score: 5, Funny

    Chickens taste better, say panel of cows.

  9. Re:Fucking stupid on Steve Jobs Taking Medical Leave of Absence · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I never understood the volatility of Apple's stock. Jobs could stub his toe and the stock would drop. Someone who works at Infinite Loop could get constipated, and the stock would drop. Someone's iPhone could get a scratch on the front glass, and the stock would drop.

    Why is Apple's stock so prone to heavy fluctuation at the even the slightest hint of something not being perfect?

    Because the truth is that those who are paid big money to analyze the market are not as stupid as we here on Mount Slashdot would like to believe. I would venture to say that they think that one big reason for Apple's success over the years is their ability to go be consistently contrarian. Apple does not follow the crowd in design and implementation. They do not get involved in races to the bottom, and they hew closely to the principle of simplification of the end user's experience instead of packing a product with buttons and a thousand "features". All of these things are in stark contrast to what is taught in business school. So if Jobs goes down and Apple is then led by a modern Scully clone, the company might not do as well in the future.

  10. What did you expect? on Facebook Opens Up Home Addresses and Phone Numbers · · Score: 1

    Knowing the origins of Facebook, did anyone expect MZ to be a beacon of ethical behavior?

  11. Re:before you do it on Extinct Mammoth, Coming To a Zoo Near You · · Score: 5, Funny

    think of all the damage kudzoo is doing in habitats where it is non-native.

    The mammoths will eat all the kudzu.

  12. Re:Microsoft? Not SBRI? on Microsoft Seeks Do-Let-The-Bed-Bugs-Bite Patent · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes it has.

    "In a landmark victory for corporations heavily invested in genetically engineered foods, on March 29 a Canadian judge ruled that farmer Percy Schmeiser of Bruno, Saskatchewan must pay $105,000 to Monsanto for illegally growing the company's genetically engineered rapeseed, from which canola oil is made. But Schmeiser says he never planted Monsanto's seeds. "How can somebody put anything on someone else's land, then claim it's theirs and say, 'We'll take it. We'll sue him. We'll fine him'?" he asks."

    http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Food/Bad_Seeds.html

    This is going to become the McDonald's Hot Coffee case of agriculture, I can tell. The facts are that the farmer recognized that some of his crop was contaminated with Monsanto's strain. Instead of complaining then, or suing Monsanto then, he harvested the seed and replanted it widely on his farm. He knew what he was doing. He was hoping it was finders, keepers. The court did not agree.

  13. Re:Self Promotion is Masturbation on iPad + Macintosh Plus = Crazy Visualizer Helmet · · Score: 1

    Bah. It's overpriced even now. When released battery life was shit too.

    It sold well, but it's still shit. Just well marketed shit.

    I am reminded once more why headhunters do not lurk on this site when searching for candidates for open CEO positions..

  14. Re:Founder Hoax on The Biggest Hoaxes In Wikipedia's First Decade · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you went to a bar and tried to pick up a chick with the line "I started Wikipedia" - how far do you think you'd actually get?

    She's say: Needs citation.

  15. Re:Keep drinking the coolaid on Bastardi's Wager · · Score: 2

    I'd raise this guy .1 degree C and say temps will decrease 0.3C in ten years (but that has to be hedged for the rise in air traffic in China).

    You just accidentally your own argument.

  16. Re:real science on Bastardi's Wager · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No legitimate scientist believes in global warming as a condition caused by human activity

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

  17. All you can eat on Virgin Mobile To Start Throttling Broadband2Go · · Score: 4, Funny

    Manager: I'm sorry, sir. You have to leave the buffet now.
    Customer: But it says "All you can eat for $10".
    Manager: That is correct. That is all you can eat for $10.

  18. Predictable on Florida Man Sues WikiLeaks For Scaring Him · · Score: 5, Funny

    I knew this would happen when I heard that Walmart was putting in self-serve legal departments.

  19. Re:Misleading title? Say it ain't so! on Nobel Prize Winner Says DNA Performs Quantum Teleportation · · Score: 2

    Really? I would like to see some citations where DNA interacts with any other molecule by any mechanism other than enzyme-substrate noncovalent binding.

    Plenty of citations to keep you busy for a while.

    I think I know what you meant, but the statement as you made it was remarkably silly.

    Yes, DNA can be methylated, Sherlock. The requirement is that DNA interact with another molecule, not become another molecule.

  20. Re:Quite Cool on Nobel Prize Winner Says DNA Performs Quantum Teleportation · · Score: 1

    IgNobels are given to real science, it just also happens to be silly, wacky, or fun science.

    2001: Astrophysics - Presented to Jack Van Impe and Rexella Van Impe of Jack Van Impe Ministries, Rochester Hills, Michigan, for their discovery that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements for the location of Hell.

  21. Re:Misleading title? Say it ain't so! on Nobel Prize Winner Says DNA Performs Quantum Teleportation · · Score: 4

    However, there has been, is, and likely will be, evidence that DNA interacts with factors beyond easy and simple comprehension. These interactions seem to resemble "phase-locking regime[s]" observed in "two superconducting samples or in the arrays of Josephson junctions," which is pretty far from quack science.

    Really? I would like to see some citations where DNA interacts with any other molecule by any mechanism other than enzyme-substrate noncovalent binding.

  22. Re:Quite Cool on Nobel Prize Winner Says DNA Performs Quantum Teleportation · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Quite honestly, I don't possess the science background to really critique the paper and have to rely on the man's credentials to find this believable.

    I do have the background. It is unbelievable. Even IgNobel Prize winners are laughing at this.

  23. Re:WTF on Program Uses GPS To Track Sex Offenders · · Score: 1

    If anyone who poses a danger to society must be removed from it, I'd say that about 30% of the society would be removed.

    We're getting there.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

  24. Re:The eco-friendliness of downloads. on Sony Closing 18M CD/Month Plant · · Score: 1

    BOYCOTT AMERICAN WOMEN
    Why American men should boycott American women

    I am an American man, and I have decided to boycott American women.

    I wondered what studman69 was up to these days.

  25. Re:where do you think computers come from? on Sony Closing 18M CD/Month Plant · · Score: 3, Funny

    (I liked Reagan.)

    I liked my greatgrandfather, too, but it didn't mean I would want him drooling on a desk in the Oval Office.