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User: Stormy+Dragon

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Comments · 1,252

  1. Sounds Messy on Scientists Create Permanently Slick Surface So Ketchup Won't Stay In Bottle · · Score: 1

    Ketchup Won't Stay In Bottle

    So like you open the lid and a fountain of ketchup immediately geysers out of the bottle?

  2. Umm... on Why Is the Grand Theft Auto CEO Also Chairman of the ESRB? · · Score: 1

    At least when titans of industry in the U.S. become the head of the regulatory agencies that oversee their former companies, they actually have to leave those companies.

    The ESRB isn't a regulatory agency; it has no actual official power whatsoever.

  3. Technically Not Illegal on $56,000 Speeding Ticket Issued Under Finland's System of Fines Based On Income · · Score: 1

    For example Steve Jobs was known to park in handicapped spots and drive around without license plates.

    Under California law, when you buy a new car from a dealer, there is a six month grace period to give you time to get license plates for it.

    Steve Jobs literally bought a new car every six months so that he never had to actually get license plates for any of them.

  4. Law of Small Numbers on On the Dangers and Potential Abuses of DNA Familial Searching · · Score: 1

    DNA fingerprinting isn't completely unique. Now when used the normal way, testing someone who has come under suspicions for other reasons, a match may be unlikely enough that it has evidential value. But when the you reverse the process ("get me anyone in the country who matches this DNA whether we have any reason to suspect them or not"), there's a good chance of going after an innocent party as that group is going to have a number of people in it, all but one of whom is innocent.

  5. Re:Lots of weird crap coming out of Congress latel on White House Threatens Veto Over EPA "Secret Science" Bills · · Score: 1

    Okay, the "most" was a bit hyperbolic, but it my point still stands that the publishers of academic journals have long been against open access long before this. They've fought hard against FRPAA (Federal Research Public Access Act) and the NIH Open Access Policy for years for the same reasons. So it's not out of bounds to point out that ASA has a conflict of interest here.

  6. Re:Lots of weird crap coming out of Congress latel on White House Threatens Veto Over EPA "Secret Science" Bills · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The ASA makes most of its revenue by charging large amounts for access to closed academic journals. Of course they're opposed to open access laws.

  7. Re:Lots of weird crap coming out of Congress latel on White House Threatens Veto Over EPA "Secret Science" Bills · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's weird about making the data from scientific studies publically available? Frankly, I think the data from all government funded research should be public domain.

  8. "Realistic" Parameters on Statistical Mechanics Finds Best Places To Hide During Zombie Apocalypse · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately a full scale simulation of an outbreak in the United States shows that for `realistic' parameters, we are largely doomed.

    Critics point to an alternate simulation showing that for realistic parameters, zombies wouldn't last long in real life

  9. Re:the solution on Schneier: Everyone Wants You To Have Security, But Not From Them · · Score: 1

    And the online companies in question probably have deanonymized all those accounts and know exactly who is really behind them

    Example: How hard is it to 'de-anonymize' cellphone data?

    Researchers at MIT and the Université Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, analyzed data on 1.5 million cellphone users in a small European country over a span of 15 months and found that just four points of reference, with fairly low spatial and temporal resolution, was enough to uniquely identify 95 percent of them.

  10. Re:What could possibly go wrong?!? on US Govt and Private Sector Developing "Precrime" System Against Cyber-Attacks · · Score: 2

    Why do you assume AI would want to exterminate all humans? We haven't tried to exterminate all the other animals.

  11. Re:meh on Artificial Intelligence Bests Humans At Classic Arcade Games · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wasn't the AI complaining about the ending of Mass Effect 3 pretty much the plot of Mass Effect 3?

  12. Really? on The Peculiar Economics of Developing New Antibiotics · · Score: 1

    "The Peculiar Economics of Developing New Antibiotics"

    the number of F.D.A.-approved antibiotics has decreased steadily in the past two decades. Now.Ezekiel J. Emanuel writes at the NYT that the problem with the development of new antibiotics is profitability. "There's no profit in it, and therefore the research has dried up..."

    If by "peculiar" you mean "completely expected".

  13. Re:Not unique to antibiotics on The Peculiar Economics of Developing New Antibiotics · · Score: 2

    That cuts both ways. HIV/AIDS research gets far more funding than things like heart diesease, diabetes, mental health despite the later affecting a far larger portion of the population. Why? Because HIV/AIDS has a huge political movement attached to it.

  14. Ob. on Star Wars-Style "Bionic Hand' Fitted To First Patients · · Score: 1

    But scientists in Austria have performed the first ‘bionic reconstructions’ on three men in a breakthrough which has allowed them to carry on with their daily lives and careers.

    Well, as well as one can carry on when they're more machine now than man, twisted and evil.

  15. Consider This Carefully on Ask Slashdot: Terminally Ill - What Wisdom Should I Pass On To My Geek Daughter? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Since I will not be around for all of the big events in her life, I am going to create a set of video messages for her that she can watch at those important times or just when she's having a bad day. I would like to do this before my condition progresses to the point that I am visibly ill, so time is short.

    A story about a daughter who was the recipient of such letters from her dead mother:

    Letter Day Saint

    Rebecca was 16 years old when her mother Elizabeth died of cancer. But before she died, she wrote letters to Rebecca, to be given to her on her birthday each year for thirteen years. At first the letters were comforting, but as time went on, they had much more complicated effects.

    While I understand the desire to "be there" for you daughter, the painful fact is you will not be. And as the years pass, the less and less likely it's going to be that your imagined future version of your daughter is at all like the actual person your daughter becomes. This is going to create stress as she's now constantly being reminded by your videos of how she's failed to live up to your dreams.

  16. Oblig on Use Astrology To Save Britain's Health System, Says MP · · Score: 1

    "But the village idiot's dirty smock and wall falling are a far cry from the modern world of the urban idiot. What kinds of backgrounds do these city idiots come from?"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  17. Does This Ban Actually Do Anything? on Only Twice Have Nations Banned a Weapon Before It Was Used; They May Do It Again · · Score: 1

    This group wants a ban on using "killer robots" because it fears they may do things (e.g. killing civilians) that are already banned. If you can't enforce the old "no killing civilians" ban, why would you be any more able to enforce the new "no killer robots" ban?

  18. Dark Side on Does Open Data Have a Dark Side? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Open data can create a new kind of digital divide, between those who have the ability and skill to use such data and those who don’t, putting the latter at a disadvantage.

    It has come to our attention some people out there have taken to learning things, which puts the stupid and the lazy at a severe disadvantage. We need to regulate this now, to make sure that everyone in this country is equally misinformed and ignorant!

  19. What Is... on Samsung's Portable SSD T1 Tested · · Score: 1

    ...a non-portable SSD?

  20. Re:Hexagonal Graphene on Scientists In China Predict Pentagonal Graphene · · Score: 1

    Actually typical graphene is already a hexagonal lattice...

    Wow, the joke train just blew through slew Station without even slowing down.

  21. Re:This has been going on for a while on Iowa Wants To Let You Carry Your Driver's License On Your Phone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They need a warrant to search your phone WITHOUT CONSENT. When you unlocked it and handed it to the cop specifically to look at, you just consented.

  22. Re:This has been going on for a while on Iowa Wants To Let You Carry Your Driver's License On Your Phone · · Score: 2

    Last time I got pulled over, the cop came up and said "Sorry, I misread your license plate, you can go" and then went back to his car. While I was glad it ended quickly, I'm left to wonder why he was running the plates of cars that weren't violating traffic laws and supect that the cruiser has some sort of camera system that's reading the plate of every single car that passes him and recording it in a database.

  23. Um What? on Comets Form Like Deep Fried Ice Cream Scoops · · Score: 1

    Comets Form Like Deep Fried Ice Cream Scoops

    They're rolled in cinamon and sugar and deep fried?

  24. Re:The whole idea is crazy on Quantum Equation Suggests Universe Had No Beginning · · Score: 1

    Time itself is part of the universe, so asking what was "before" the creation of spacetime is a meaningless question.

  25. Re:The Zynga business model on Sony Sells Off Sony Online Entertainment · · Score: 1

    I theenk ee as seen through the charade!