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User: dtolman

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Comments · 359

  1. Re:Article or it didn't happen? on Black Hole Picture Captured For First Time in Space 'Breakthrough' (theguardian.com) · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why link to The Guardian when you can view the formal paper in all its glory - including multiple images taken over the course of a week: https://iopscience.iop.org/jou...

  2. WHAT? 2009 pandemic came from Mexico, not China on How to Maintain Lab Safety While Making Viruses Deadlier · · Score: 2

    Why should anyone take this seriously when the lede itself contains conspiracy fodder? The 2009 swiine flu outbreak started in Mexico - it wasn't some lab virus and it certainly didn't escape from China.

  3. Re:I think he's right... on Nat Geo Writer: Science Is Running Out of "Great" Things To Discover · · Score: 1

    Silly - there is plenty of things to discover - but you only get a peak at it after your rocket lands on Alpha Centauri!

  4. Re:I think he's right... on Nat Geo Writer: Science Is Running Out of "Great" Things To Discover · · Score: 1

    Sounds like someone needs a Nerve Stapling. Would you mind looking over at the poster on the wall of Chairman Sheng-ji Yang for a second?

  5. Astronomy (exoplanets,etc ) and Cosmology say Hi! on Nat Geo Writer: Science Is Running Out of "Great" Things To Discover · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Considering that less than 20 years ago there were no known extrasolar planets, no one had ever even thought up of the Holographic universe theory, or debated the existence (and implications) of a firewall around blackholes, not to mention the so dark we still can't find it Dark Matter... I mean - we haven't even made enough discoveries to start making theories yet with Exoplanets (gaseous Super Earths are brand new in the past year, I believe), and cosmology has huge areas to explore and craft experiments around that are literally brand new.

    I think we're going to be just fine in the theory and spectacular discovery department.

  6. Re:About as much damage as Y2K on When Space Weather Attacks Earth · · Score: 2

    Wow, with that kind of forward thinking you could run for Congress, or be a pundit!

    Hey - I have some land on Mount St Helens that I'd like to sell - want some?

  7. Could be a lot worse... could've been the fax line on Zynga Puts Random Stranger In Customer Support Role · · Score: 2

    When I had a new landline number assigned to me 15 years back, we found out the hard way it was the old fax number for a business. Nothing like getting half a dozen calls an hour all day and night, each one a series of high pitched whistles and beeps. After complaining to the phone company numerous times, they finally gave us a new number after two weeks. Gee, thanks.

  8. Re:An idea on Ask Slashdot: Gaming With Only One Hand? · · Score: 1

    Check boardgamegeek.com for local gaming groups in your area. Almost everyone city or county has one...

  9. Re:According to original report it wasn't Enders G on Teacher Suspended For Reading Ender's Game To Students · · Score: 1

    In addition to the link the other poster mentioned, the earliest cite is: http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/031412-Aiken-County-Schools--3859574 which also mentions a story with a prostitute and a sexual act. .

  10. According to original report it wasn't Enders Game on Teacher Suspended For Reading Ender's Game To Students · · Score: 4, Informative

    The original story reported it a bit differently:
    "According to the incident report, a teacher had been reading pornographic material from the Internet to the students in class. One of the stories was about prostitutes having their faces covered with ejaculation."

    ---

    Unless this is the writer's cut that my library didn't stock - this wasn't enders game they were reading.

  11. Only Monarch to be on Star Trek too on $1.5 Billion Star Trek Theme Park Coming To Jordan · · Score: 2

    Lesson learned - always find time to cast the Crown Prince to be on your show, you never know when it'll pay off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmut6FJ1d4M Now we know what ??? is in step 3: wait for extra to become wealthy king.

  12. Re:M$ fired the guys who had already designed one on Microsoft: No Tablets Until It's Distinctive · · Score: 1

    How could they possibly release that concept? It had too much buzz around it, and if there is one thing MS hates... its being hip.

  13. Re:Intellivision Baseball on Our Video Game Heritage Is Rotting Away · · Score: 1

    Great game - only shame about it is the lack of fly vs ground balls. I should really see how much it costs to get the new baseball version they published in the mid-80's... my intellivision console works and still I play it now and then (including baseball - just a few months ago).

  14. Re:Buzz on Don't Talk To Aliens, Warns Stephen Hawking · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Don't worry - our radio waves are not on their way - they may go out forever, but the weaken too... sorry to say that you'd have to be by Jupiter with a radio telescope to watch our TV. By the time aliens notice the carrier signals, they'll be in our Oort Cloud. They'll notice the oxygen and methane in our atmosphere first...

  15. You wait for perfection, I'll take for good enough on Anti-Cancer Agent Stops Metastasis In Its Tracks · · Score: 1

    Seriously. My chances of dying are 100%. Based off my family history, it'll be cancer instead of heart disease.

    So if someone offers me the privilege of continued living for only 50K a year, I'll take it. I wasn't expecting to retire anyway. And I can always decide to step off the carousel at any time by not taking the drugs.

  16. Re:Come to Verizon! on Verizon CEO Says "We Will Hunt Heavy Users Down" · · Score: 1

    True... if you read the fine print though, it basically says no streaming video/audio... downloading (aka - things you would use bandwidth for).

    but apparently they have no way of enforcing, so why not get the cheapest plan you can get, and pretend its unlimited?

  17. Re:Come to Verizon! on Verizon CEO Says "We Will Hunt Heavy Users Down" · · Score: 1

    They are advertised... I mean its in the name of the mobile plan - the Verizon mobile plans are called the 250/megs a month plan or 5 gigs a month plan or something like that.

    I'm just shocked they weren't enforcing... does that mean we should all get verizon 250/meg a month mobile plan, and use it as much as we want? Wonder how much video can a phone download in a month on a 3G/wireless network...

  18. Aren't the mobile plans all sold by meg/month? on Verizon CEO Says "We Will Hunt Heavy Users Down" · · Score: 1

    Do they sell a mobile/wireless plan that doesn't have the phrase "xBytes Per Month" in it?

    Cause if they do... lemme know - I'd love to see it.

  19. Have you read the verizon mobile data plan? on Verizon CEO Says "We Will Hunt Heavy Users Down" · · Score: 1

    The cap is advertised in the mobile data plan - you get a 250 MB plan, a 5 gig plan, etc...they're just planning on enforcing it now.

    And what does FIOS have to do with mobile data plans, which is what the CEO is talking about?

  20. Re:Dark Matter? on 90% of the Universe Found Hiding In Plain View · · Score: 1

    Not really... there are problems at the galactic scale - when observing galaxies, the gravitational pull is just too high to be explained by normal matter alone (assuming everything else we know is mostly correct).

  21. Why is this better than NASAs balloon program? on Balloon and Duct Tape Deliver Great Space Photos · · Score: 3, Informative

    I mean... whats the big deal here that NASA would care?

    It has its own high altitide balloon program - where they do real science - for weeks at a time - not just cool pictures for a few hours...

    http://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/balloon/
    http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/

  22. MOD PARENT UP on Toshiba Ends Incandescent Bulb Production After 120 Years · · Score: 1

    Troll? Its the frigging truth.

  23. Give 3 year olds some credit on Accidental Wii Suicide · · Score: 1

    I've been spending a lot of time with lots 2-3 year olds lately. With that day-to-day experience fresh in my mind, I can report they aren't usually a bunch of drooling morons. They're just little uneducated and irrational people. They may not comprehend death, but they definitely comprehend "this could hurt me or break something".

    I saw a class full of 2 year olds see what happens when you drop a glass cup in a sink. Now they all use plastic or paper cups in the sink, and I never see them taking a glass one over. I figure a gun going off would make an impression equal to a glass breaking.

    If you tell them something is dangerous, demonstrate the fact such that it sinks in, they usually don't do it again. Usually.

  24. Re:Suicide? Try murder. on Accidental Wii Suicide · · Score: 1

    I questioned that also, but I wasn't familiar with the gun and didn't want to make an ass out of myself publicly speculating on the trigger... Guess I should have as I already did with my other out of whack assumptions...

  25. Suicide? Try murder. on Accidental Wii Suicide · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A 3 year old knows the difference between a real gun, and a lightweight plastic controller. According to the parents, the gun was sitting on the table for a whole day. In a little trailer.

    Apparently, loaded, cocked, and with the safety off. And then the little girl pointed it at herself and pulled the trigger? Sounds dubious to me that someone who has spent years with guns doesn't know that you don't point it at yourself.

    But even if thats the case it was negligent homicide - you don't forget to keep a loaded, cocked, and ready to fire weapon out for an entire day, in plain view.

    I wouldn't be shocked if the autopsy shows no signs of gun powder residue on her hands/arms, and it turns out that the father shot her, and they made up a BS story to cover.