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User: jbeaupre

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Comments · 1,834

  1. Re:Only section 3: Section 2 still stands. on Supreme Court Overturns Defense of Marriage Act · · Score: 1

    Clever, but not such a great idea.

    Right now momentum is in the direction of accepting gay marriage. One big reason given is that it doesn't affect anyone. If you start penalizing people in same sex marriages who moved to a new state, they can't change the laws of their old state, but they can influence the laws of their new state. They will have an incentive to harmonize the laws of their new state with their old one.

  2. Re:Distracts from unlimited surveillance on Supreme Court Overturns Defense of Marriage Act · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that homosexuals, especially married ones, get very few abortions. Which should make conservatives happy.

  3. Re:Four food groups on The Glorious Return of the Twinkie · · Score: 1

    Preservatives are better classified as vitamins.

  4. Re:NIMBY on The Aging of Our Nuclear Power Plants Is Not So Graceful · · Score: 1

    There's no carbon-14 in coal.

  5. Re:Good? More like "Good Luck" on China Says Serious Polluters Will Get the Death Penalty · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Connected with who in the PRC?

    China is not immune to politics. Being aligned with the wrong person at the wrong time, you can end up being made a high profile example.

  6. Re:Gobbled up? on MakerBot Merging With Stratasys · · Score: 1

    Merge into traffic
    Merge the changes into the code

  7. Re:This is stupid on One Year Since Assange Took Refuge in Ecuadorian Embassy · · Score: 1

    The last prisoner to arrive at Gitmo arrived March 14, 2008. Looks like they aren't interested in adding to the population.

  8. Re:If you go to hospital on Supreme Court: No Patents For Natural DNA Sequences · · Score: 1

    No, none of your examples apply. You can still give parts of yourself (assuming those aren't the cure). Same as you can sell or give away your car, which is covered by hundreds, possibly thousands, of patents.

    The thought process is not owned by a patent holder (mental feats are barred from patent protection).

    Please learn what a patent is and isn't.

  9. Re:If you go to hospital on Supreme Court: No Patents For Natural DNA Sequences · · Score: 2

    And give you a cure, that "modifies" your DNA, then do they own you???

    No. No more than the hundreds of patented products you have bought are owned by the patent holder. By providing you the cure, a hospital would be granting you a license to the end result. You own the result. But you might still face restrictions from providing the cure to others such as your descendents.

  10. What if You are a fucking passenger?

    That might be more distracting to the driver than a cell phone.

  11. A similar kickstarter telescope project: on Planetary Resources To Build Crowdfunded Public Space Telescope · · Score: 1

    Ok, it's not in space, and it's not actually kickstarter. But pretty cool none the less.

    http://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/history.html

  12. Re:Through the looking glass on How To Talk Like a CIO · · Score: 1

    We make surgical instruments. If it doesn't work the first time, we can lose a future customer in the most permanent sense.

  13. Through the looking glass on How To Talk Like a CIO · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We build stuff and it better damn well work. So....

    Our CEO is a physicist. All of the people in upper management have degrees in science or engineering, including sales and marketing. Yeah, you have to use business jargon, but if you don't talk tech, you don't get to participate at a strategic level. The less you know, the lower in the pecking order you are around here.

  14. Re:Sounds compltely useless as a sniper weapon. on A Computer-based Smart Rifle With Incredible Accuracy, Now On Sale · · Score: 1

    It's not designed with the military in mind. Just not rugged enough. This is designed for the rich hunting and target shooting crowd in benign environments.

    But law enforce has taken an interest. Not for the targeting capability, but for the video. Now the brass can look over a sniper's shoulder and see what he sees. The video recording also allows for later evaluation.

  15. What Einstein would say if he were alive today: on 'Einstein's Planet' Becomes First Exoplanet Discovered Using New Method · · Score: 2, Funny

    Help! Help! Let me out!

    (Yeah, I know he was cremated, but his brain is in a jar.)

  16. Re:How many of these planets are habitable? on 'Einstein's Planet' Becomes First Exoplanet Discovered Using New Method · · Score: 4, Funny

    Billions and billions*.

    * assuming one per galaxy.

  17. Re:What about human flesh? on Engineering the $325,000 Burger · · Score: 2

    There was a short story in Analog long ago that touched on that. A husband-wife team were famous for selling the best and most exotic cloned meat. He was the scientist, she was marketing. In a competitive industry, everyone was trying to out do each other.

    In the end, he confessed to his wife that their latest blockbuster was cloned from a sample taken from her ass.

  18. Re:Points quota system on Lawyer Loses It In Letter To Patent Office · · Score: 1

    Ah, thanks for the clarification. Is this the new system designed to deal with too many RCE's?

  19. Points quota system on Lawyer Loses It In Letter To Patent Office · · Score: 4, Interesting

    First rejections are so common there is a theory that examiners are motivated to automatically reject patent applications the first time they review them. The theory goes like this:

    Patent examiners are on a quota point system. They have to accumulate so many points for an acceptable performance rating. They get points for all sorts of activity. But one of the most visible ones is an office action.

    So they could get a point for approving a patent. Do the work, get a point, move on to the next patent.

    But they also get points each time they reject a patent. Naturally the inventor will file a response to the rejection. The examiner can now earn another point by responding to a patent he or she has already invested time reviewing and is familiar with.

    This can go on several times until a statutory limit requires a final decision. Once they approve a patent or give a final rejection, the stream of points for that file ends.

    So there is an incentive to find a trivial reason for initial rejection, especially if there is a chance it can be overcome. That just leads to a chance for a second rejection.

    I don't know how true the theory is, but if you're trying to explain to yourself why you got a dumb rejection, it makes as much sense as anything else.

  20. Re:Good clean wifi? on No Porn From Public WiFi Hotspots In the UK Proposed · · Score: 1

    What on earth is good clean wifi?

    It's the same as regular wifi, but without the naughty bits.

  21. Re:Does that include Women Porn? on No Porn From Public WiFi Hotspots In the UK Proposed · · Score: 1

    I read Scientific American, Analog, Popular Science and a few others in bed before falling asleep. A pile of these magazines accumulates on the bookshelf next to my bed. I've taken to calling it my Nerd Porn.

  22. Re:Open research on Ask Slashdot: Science Books For Middle School Enrichment? · · Score: 1

    The point isn't to promote nuclear power, it's to get them to learn about nuclear power, nuclear isotopes, nuclear proliferation, nuclear waste, fuel cycles, economics, research, etc. Without ever telling them to. They end up learning about the dozen different types of conventional reactors as well as breeder reactors, thorium reactors, fusion reactors and the merits and problems of each.

    They aren't making plans, they are selecting a nuclear power system. Which means they will learn about nuclear waste and safety problems associated with each type of power. They can form their own opinions based on whatever they discover and read.

    Or do you prefer to just sit and have someone spoon feed you facts and tell you what to think?

  23. Re:Open research on Ask Slashdot: Science Books For Middle School Enrichment? · · Score: 1

    No CDC this time. But I did advise her to swing by the house to wash the acid off in private before going to the hospital. Otherwise they would have given her a scrubbing the CDC would be proud of.

    Luckily she was testing an experiment after class and BEFORE showing it to the kids. It shredded the curtains and blew broken glass down the hallway. And that, kids, is why we wear protective eyewear!

  24. Re:News for nerds? on Protesting Animal Testing, Intruders Vandalize Italian Lab · · Score: 1

    How is this news for nerds?

    Because it gives nerds hope that activists will free them from their parents' basements next.

  25. Open research on Ask Slashdot: Science Books For Middle School Enrichment? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My wife teaches advanced middle school science (7th and 8th). She rarely assigns or recommends reading material. She gives them subjects and turns them loose. This week it is to create egg-drop protection devices and create periodic table/fictional character trading cards. Here are some areas that she's seen the kids go crazy doing their own research:

    1) Pick a genetic disease. Explain the symptoms, the mechanisms, and how is it genetically inherited. Unspoken is "Try to outdo your classmates."

    2) Your town has a billion dollars and wants to build a nuclear power station. You've been asked to recommend what kind. Give a recommendation with evidence to support safety, reliability, fuel cycle handling, economics, probability of success, etc.

    3) GMO's, stem cell research, nuclear power, global warming (etc, etc). Pick one of these controversial topics, research it, talk to your family, and come up with an opinion (for or against). Now write a letter to a government official explaining, with scientific rational, why they should make the policy decisions you believe are correct. My wife refuses to discuss her opinions on any of these topics to avoid biasing their opinions.

    The last two were particularly powerful. Kids were amazed they were allowed to have an opinion. And she began doing these before teaching advanced science. She rigged classroom assignments to get all the special ed kids because she thinks they are more fun. She often had double the number allowed by state law, but her kids were outscoring other classes. Stats got noticed and advanced science classes were born.

    Yes, I'm proud of my wife. And never prouder than the day she had to go to the emergency room for blowing up the lab! Epic!