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User: liamoohay

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  1. Not to worry.... on 2016 Election Cycle Led By Billionaire Donors · · Score: 1

    I'm sure the IRS will be looking into this.

    Oh, wait.

  2. Re:Anonymous Grammar Nerd on AT&T Offers $250k Reward To Find the California Fiber-Optic Ripper · · Score: 1

    The attack precedes 11 previous ones in California in the preceding twelve months.

    FBI is looking for someone with detailed technical knowledge of critical telecommunications infrastructure, and a time machine. That should narrow the search a bit.

  3. In Soviet Uzbekistan on Airline Begins Weighing Passengers For 'Safety' · · Score: 1

    In Soviet Uzbekistan, airlines weigh you. Oh, wait...

  4. CNIL? on Google Rejects French Order For 'Right To Be Forgotten' · · Score: 1

    CNIL French order Google to get off their lawn.

    *This joke is funniest when read aloud.

  5. Re: In other news on Clinton Regrets, But Defends, Use of Family Email Server · · Score: 1

    That's just ridiculous. Just because someone works for the government does not mean that he or she has no expectation of privacy. I'm not defending the use of personal email for official communications, but even high ranking officials should have some expectations of privacy in the conduct of their personal affairs. Yes, even if their last name happens to be Clinton :-P

  6. Academic freedom on Illinois University Restricts Access To Social Media, Online Political Content · · Score: 1

    This position that the university has taken will have definite chilling effects on academic freedom. It is clearly inconsistent with their mission as a research university, and I sincerely hope they reconsider this policy.

  7. The real test... on Comparison: Linux Text Editors · · Score: 1

    My wife is a software engineer and uses sublime exclusively. I am an academic, and have used only emacs for the past 20 years. Guess which of us makes more money...

  8. I for one welcome our new crunchy green overlords.

  9. Re:Sanity check on 7.1 Billion People, 7.1 Billion Mobile Phone Accounts Activated · · Score: 1

    Don't be so cynical. I say, let's aim for 200% coverage!

  10. Re:+1 Punny on Space Telescope Reveals Weird Star Cluster Conundrum · · Score: 1

    it seems our understanding of how stars are born is less than stellar.

    A shining example of +1 Punny.

    Nah. Whoever wrote that wasn't very bright.

  11. Racket on $200 For a Bound Textbook That You Can't Keep? · · Score: 1

    It's been said elsewhere in this thread that the textbook publishing industry is nothing more than a racket. The publishers routinely release "new" editions to textbook which only differ in having the problem numbers rearranged to attempt to make old editions useless for current classes. The prices in the textbooks are gouged beyond belief. The publisher makes more profit off of a class of students than the instructor does, which makes no sense on margin.

    Part of the problem is that students can't vote with their wallets. The people that make the buying decisions are the professors, or worse the departments. Even without the occasional conflict of interests, these agents have no economic incentive to reduce costs for students. Students' only option to "vote with their wallets" is to look for a different academic program or school, which is rather absurd to regard as an "option". It is only out of the good will of the professor that costs for the students can realistically be minimized, but there are no real incentives to support this at most institutions.

    Once upon a time, there was value added in having a publisher. But this is the 21st century, and there are ways for textbook authors to publish without imposing onerous costs on students. There are even some good publishers that will provide manuscript services at fairly minimal cost. So as I see it, the big textbook publishers have become nothing more than rent collectors in the style of the RIAA/MPAA, leeching off of the work of others. The good news is that academic culture seems to be changing. The younger generation of teachers is sensitive to these issues, and open source publishing looks poised to take off. I personally would view it as an ethical imperative to publish any textbook of my own under Creative Commons, and I think this attitude is becoming increasingly popular.

  12. Re:"Fully Half Doubt the Big Bang"? on The US Public's Erratic Acceptance of Science · · Score: 1

    If a model conflicts with observation, the model either must be dropped or modified.

    That's a little too simplistic. Often, when a model conflicts with observation, the first thing that is questioned is the observation. Is the observation accurate? Is it repeatable? Is the observation made without observer bias (intentional or otherwise)?

    How is that too simplistic? If the observation was inaccurate, then it really wasn't an observation, was it?

    Only in the same way that it is impossible to "observe" a True Scotsman.

  13. Re:It didn't matter whether it was last year or ne on ARIN Is Down To the Last /8 of IPv4 Addresses · · Score: 1

    All we need is some ISP competition...

    And I want a pink unicorn.

  14. Re:the future is now... on Navy Debuts New Railgun That Launches Shells at Mach 7 · · Score: 1

    The future is never now..the present is now.

    Or at least it was then.

  15. Re:Homeopathy doesn't work that way on Australia Declares Homeopathy Nonsense, Urges Doctors to Inform Patients · · Score: 1

    But you need to be careful about the large amounts of dihydrogen monoxide present in some homeopathic preparations. Although this can be helpful in treating certain conditions, like dehydration, in sufficient quantities it is quite dangerous.

  16. Re:Don't bother. on The Problem With Congress's Scientific Illiterates · · Score: 1

    Shouldn't it be "think of how stupid the median person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider"

  17. Re:Old idea. What makes it possible now? on Gunshot Victims To Be Part of "Suspended Animation" Trials · · Score: 2

    Judging by the quotation in the summary, we can presumably infer that someone who has been dead for less than two hours is only mostly dead. Interesting....

  18. Nice try on Creationists Demand Equal Airtime With 'Cosmos' · · Score: 5, Informative

    "No, consideration of special creation is definitely not open for discussion, it would seem."

    Nice try, except scientists have considered creationism. For instance, Stephen Jay Gould has written screeds analyzing creationism scientifically. The issue isn't a lack of consideration, but rather that such scientists have thoroughly refuted creationism. I actually wouldn't mind a series scientifically analyzing creationism in principle, perhaps along the lines of some of Gould's work, but I somehow doubt that such a public flaying would satisfy the good folks at AiG.

  19. Re:And the US could turn Russia into vapor on Russian State TV Anchor: Russia Could Turn US To "Radioactive Ash" · · Score: 1

    To give an analogy. If I'm walking in a dark alley and run into a guy who jumps on me with a knife, I'm in my right to take out a pistol and shoot him. But if I'm walking in a dark alley and a guy is camping at the corner, he might be waiting for me to come by and jump on me with a knife, but until he does I have no moral or legal right to shoot him.

    This looks eerily like the US justification for the Iraq War.

  20. Re:Of course it's going to exacerbate inequality. on The Poor Neglected Gifted Child · · Score: 1

    The U.S. K-12 educational system is ridiculously expensive and sucks mostly because it is a heavily bureaucratized government monopoly

    I hate to ruin your little libertarian fantasy narrative, but there are private and charter schools in the United States, so it's not a government monopoly by any stretch. A "government monopoly" would more closely resemble the situation in Taiwan, which is one of the countries discussed favorably in TFA, where the schools are all run by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

    One's alma mater is only a barrier in the U.S. if you work for the government.

    I have no idea what planet this idea came from.

    Social mobility is still greater in the U.S. than in other countries

    The United States actually scores very low in indices that measure social mobility. Moreover, this study finds that in the US out of all the sampled countries, one's PISA score in science is more likely than any other country to be influenced by parental background.

  21. 70kg?! on Study: Elephants Have Learned To Tell Certain Languages Apart · · Score: 1

    You sir have obviously never met us Americans.

  22. PowerPoint? Really? on Physics Forum At Fermilab Bans Powerpoint · · Score: 2

    Doesn't everybody use Beamer nowadays?

  23. Why not? on Japanese Firm Proposes Microwave-Linked Solar Plant On the Moon · · Score: 1

    With a Japanese power company managing the project, what could possibly go wrong?

  24. It's not outside the realm of plausibility. Three out of five only comes out to a brain and a half in total.

  25. Re:Bah! on Panel Urges Major NSA Spying Overhaul · · Score: 1

    Given how absolutely awful MSNBC and CNN are, it's no surprise that so many people prefer Fox News. Cable news has been in a race to the bottom for quite some time now.