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User: benito27uk

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  1. Re:Unions are archaic on Ask Slashdot: What Would It Take For Developers To Start Their Own Union? · · Score: 1

    In 2005 eighteen out of the twenty six European countries had a national minimum wage. http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2005/07/study/tn0507101s.htm

  2. Grammar, on Does Grammar Matter Anymore? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The difference between knowing your shit, and knowing you're shit.

  3. Re:Of course. on TSA Defends Pat Down of 4-Year-Old Girl · · Score: 1

    And those unfortunate children brainwashed into carrying out suicide attacks are typically teenagers living in abject poverty and not four year old girls living typical suburban lives.

  4. Re:Of course. on TSA Defends Pat Down of 4-Year-Old Girl · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Whilst the story in itself is deeply distressing, so are some of the comments from the Washington Post's article on it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/grandma-tsa-agents-forced-crying-4-year-old-to-undergo-tsa-pat-down-at-kan-airport-after-hug/2012/04/25/gIQAojLohT_allComments.html?ctab=all_&#comments One prime one being: "In this case, however, the child had completed screening but had contact with another member of her family who had not completed the screening process. This absolves the TSA entirely. I do not want ANYONE (muslim or christian or young or old) passing through a checkpoint after making contact with an unscreened passenger."

  5. Re:Wait a minute on Is Siri Smarter Than Google? · · Score: 1

    If you use Google's 'Verbatim' option in the 'More Search Tools' option you don't even need to put quotes in to get the flight status at the top of the response.

  6. Re:copy... on British Police Accused of Stealing Software · · Score: 3, Informative

    yes they were... From TFA..."but the force went on to repeat alleged infringement in 2007 when it updated the software, now named OLIVE, and made it commercially available."

  7. Re:Password Plus CAPTCHA helps on Cheap GPUs Rendering Strong Passwords Useless · · Score: 1

    It took more than just seeing a couple of the token codes... Cryptanalysis of the Alleged SecurID Hash Function extended version: http://eprint.iacr.org/2003/162.pdf

  8. Re:Wakeup call US? on Playstation To Restore Services This Week · · Score: 1

    PCI DSS does allow the PAN to be stored, but it must be stored encrypted. The sensitive authenticastion data - mag stripe data/ cvv2 and pin cannot be kept.

  9. Re:Sex on Wisconsin DA Threatens Arrests Over Sex Ed · · Score: 1

    Come on, this is slashdot - what is this earth thing you call 'the clitoris'?

  10. Re:A high speed railway on China To Connect Its High-Speed Rail To Europe · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well I suppose technically Germany was France's number one trading partner in 1940, but that was only because Germany occupied much of France at that time. For much of the world the Second World War started in 1939, not 1941.

  11. Re:Can you please link to the CNN article? on Ben Stein's 'Expelled' - Evolution, Academia and Conformity · · Score: 5, Informative
    The Daily Telegraph Talks about this, two thirds of the way down this page... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/04/13/do1307.xml

    Reprinted below:

    A talking point among "climate sceptics" on both sides of the Atlantic has been the bizarre tale of how the BBC's chief reporter on climate change censored an item on the BBC website after being harried by a "climate activist".

    On April 4 Roger Harrabin posted a story on the fact that world temperatures have not continued to rise in the past 10 years, and this year will fall to a level markedly below the average of the past two decades.

    Citing the World Meteorological Organisation, Mr Harrabin accurately reported that "global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory".

    This was a red rag to Jo Abbess of the Campaign Against Climate Change (Hon President, George Monbiot), who emailed Mr Harrabin demanding that he "correct" his item.

    Mr Harrabin insisted that what he had written was true. There are indeed eminent climate scientists "who question whether warming will continue as predicted".

    This only angered Ms Abbess further. She said it was "highly irresponsible to play into the hands of the sceptics", to "even hint that the Earth is cooling down again".

    Mr Harrabin, though he has led the BBC's tireless promotion of warmist orthodoxy, stood firm. Even in the "general media", he replied, "sceptics" highlight the lack of increase since 1998: to ignore this might give the impression that "debate is being censored".

    His item had, after all, added "we are still in a long-term warming trend".

    This was too much for Ms Abbess. She responded that this was not "a matter of debate". He should not be quoting the sceptics "whose voice is heard everywhere, on every channel, deliberately obstructing the emergence of the truth".

    Unless he changed his item, she said, "I would have to conclude that you are insufficiently educated to be able to know when you have been psychologically manipulated". She threatened to expose him by spreading his replies across the internet.

    At this point the BBC's man caved in. Within minutes a new version appeared, given the same time and date as that which he had consigned to Winston Smith's memory hole.

    Out went any mention of "sceptics" who question global warming. After a guarded reference to this year's "slightly cooler" temperatures, a new paragraph said that they would "still be above the average" and that we will "soon exceed the record year of 1998 because of the global warming induced by greenhouse gases".

    Of course we have long known where the BBC stands on climate change. But it is good to have such clear evidence that, even when one of its reporters tries to be honest, he can be whipped back into line by a pressure group.

    In the end, Ms Abbess still circulated the exchanges on the internet, to show the great victory she had won for the "emerging truth".

  12. Re:Listen up, Brits on UK Government Loses 15 Million Private Records · · Score: 1
    We're anal retentive! As Robin Williams said:

    Than the Puritans broke away from the Calvinists, our ancestors, people so uptight, the English kicked them out.

    How anal do you have to be for the English to go: "Get the fuck out!" "Take your pimp shoes and go!"

  13. Re:Mankind is insignificant, yet doesn't realize i on Americans Gearing up to Fight Global Warming · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Is that you George?

  14. Re:Writing on the wall. on Britannica Attacks - Nature Returns Fire · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Agreed, but Nature's original article stated "Then we weeded out the terms that did not have any entry in Britannica (they all appeared in Wikipedia), and any for which the entries were vastly different in length. Sometimes the lengths were balanced by amalgamating two or three Britannica entries into one coherent piece" www.nature.com

    Now that's a very different statement than the one they brought out in response to Britannia's allegations that talks about 'chosen excerpts'. I don't think most people would have a problem with the amalgamation of articles, but the arbitrary cutting of articles is a very different story. And could be used by an editor or journalist (i say 'could be' rather than 'were') to promote their own agenda on the subject.

  15. Re:Writing on the wall. on Britannica Attacks - Nature Returns Fire · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It's not 'flailing around attempting to attack anyone who criticizes them'. Britannica's argument is that Nature were selective in their use of articles from Britannica

    In one of the case's, the encyclopedia britannica claims that Nature used a 350 word introduction rather than the full 6000 word article on Lipids. If this is true I would say they have good reason to criticise Nature's article on the relevant merits of both encyclopedias.

    Nature has been remarkably reticent in allowing anyone to see the unabridged reviewer reports to enable readers to make their own judgements, part of their own response to Britannica's allegations states that they 'provided reviewers with chosen excerpts, not full articles; this was done with entries from both Encyclopaedia Britannica and Wikipedia. www.nature.com Making such arbritary decisions, and not detailing this in the original article is not what is expected of such a respectable publication

  16. Doesn't include Damages on UK Has First Verdict in P2P Case · · Score: 1
    The announcement today is only the immediate payment that they have to make, the decision on the final determination of costs and damages is still pending.

    The costs for one of the filesharers is estimated at £13,500 but there have been no estimates on what amount of damages they will have to pay on top.

  17. Re:Global Warming and the Ice Age on Forecasting Doomsday · · Score: 1
    nitpicking an interesting post, but technically it's an 'interstadial' period rather than 'interglacial' period.

    An interglacial period is a warm period between two glacial periods, whilst an interstadial period is a less cold period during a glacial period

  18. Re:Sounds interesting but.... on Amazon's Mechanical Turk · · Score: 1
    The press button also goes to a page that's not on amazon.com, even if it say's it is on the browser header:

    http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060 &p=irol-InfoReq

  19. Re:Not mentioned in the article... on A Clock That Runs for 10,000 Years · · Score: 1
    Well his earlier prototypes were so I'd assume so:

    "Hillis is in the process of rolling out these and more ideas in a series of increasingly complex prototypes. The first one, now on permanent display at the Science Museum in London, was financed by an anonymous donor who lent it to the museum. "The deal we offer is, if you fund the next stage of the development of the clock, we will give you a prototype," says Hillis. "We have spent millions of dollars so far--I don't know the exact number."

    "The nine-foot-tall London clock uses a slowly rotating torsional pendulum, ticks once every 30 seconds, and tracks hours, sidereal and solar years, centuries, phases of the moon, and the zodiac--and happens to be hauntingly beautiful. Incredibly, its three-year-long construction was completed in a mad rush scarcely one hour before midnight on December 31, 1999. That meant there was no time to test it before the switch to the year 2000, the most complex date change in the Gregorian system since the year 1600 because it involved a once-in-400-years leap year exemption."

  20. Re:3901 Metropolitan Street, New Orleans, LA on Post-Katrina Images on Google Maps · · Score: 1
    During 2004, Cuba evacuated 1.3 million people out of the way of hurricane ivan (a category 5 hurricane).

    The head of the United Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), Salvano Briceno states "The Cuban way could easily be applied to other countries with similar economic conditions and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage to protect their population as well as Cuba does,"

    "From an early age, all Cubans are taught how to behave as hurricanes approach the island."

    According to the UN/ISDR, Cuba holds an annual two-day training session to help people prepare for hurricanes.

    Two days before a hurricane strikes, entire communities of people -- all versed in interpreting information from the Cuban Institute of Meterology -- begin implementing emergency plans. Local authorities assist the most vulnerable people. Transport is organised and hospitals and schools are converted into shelters.

    Quotes taken from Reuters: http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/1 09577329151.htm

  21. Wooosssshhhh! on Businesses To Be Censored on Use of Olympics · · Score: 1

    That's the sound the joke made flying straight over your head.

  22. Sport? on The Lives And Times of Speed Runners · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Enjoyable activity certainly, but it's stretching the definition to call it a sport!

    If playing a game to try and complete it as quick as possible is high stress I pity the submitter having to deal with real life.

  23. Re:the wonderful thing with this... on Britain to Pilot GPS Speed Governors · · Score: 1
    Traffic deaths in Britain have fallen, not risen. In 2004 there were 2715 less fatalities or serious injuries than the previous year (down to 34,500).

    Figures from the Office for National Statistics.

  24. For pities sake... on Steve Jobs to Become Ikea CEO · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Let it go, it's past midday practically everywhere now, and this has been mentioned in most of the other shitty stories today!

  25. Re:Not a squatter on Apple Threatens iTunes.co.uk Owner · · Score: 1
    The link you gave doesn't say that the first release was jan 9 2001.

    In fact it says "Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name."