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United States

Submission + - State Senate Candidate Under Fire for Playing World of Warcraft (bbc.co.uk)

ianare writes: The gaming hobby of a political candidate has become an issue in a state senate race in Maine. Colleen Lachowicz's liking for back-stabbing and poison in WoW raise questions about her "fitness for office", Republicans claim. They've also detailed some of the comments Ms Lachowicz has made while talking about her orc rogue, in particular highlighting her affection for the ability to stab things and kill people without suffering a jail sentence.
"I think it's weird that I'm being targeted for playing online games," said Ms Lachowicz in a statement. "Apparently I'm in good company since there are 183 million other Americans who also enjoy online games.

Comment Re:Catastrophe (Score 1) 926

That's all very nice, and I follow most of those guidelines, and try to do the others.

But the reality is that even if, say, ALL of Europe was magically CO2 free -- that is none whatsoever, not a gram released from transport, food production, heating, electricity production, etc -- at the snap of the fingers, it would only be a little more than half of what China produces each year (currently 4.3 vs 7.7 million tonnes).

This is something much much bigger than one person, or even one average-sized country. Really the only way anything will get done is by world leaders agreeing to do something about it: setting up treaties, regulatory bodies, carbon markets, reforestation programs and the like. And properly funding all of this.

Fat fucking chance of that happening I'm afraid.

With the US actively stopping any such talk for a decade or more to "protect the economy" (and then most decidely NOT protecting the world economy, but that's a different story), things were already moving extremely slowly, "we've decided to not decide on anything just yet" meeting after meeting. And now China is another major obstacle.

Future generations will hate us for what we are doing, leading our world on a path of famine, drought and war, while at the same time having the knowledge and ability to prevent it.

The Internet

Submission + - Did ants invent the internet? (gizmag.com)

ianare writes: Ask who invented the Internet and you’ll spark off an argument with everyone championed from DARPA to Nikola Tesla. However, two Stanford scientists claim that the inventor may have had six legs, antennae and a taste for disrupting picnics. Professor of biology Deborah Gordon and professor of computer science Balaji Prabhakar say that red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) use the same Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) in foraging that the internet uses to manage data transmissions – making a sort of “Anternet”.

Comment Re:bad premise (Score 1) 404

Well some things don't change much throughout history.

The tactics employed by Genghis Khan are still applicable on a modern battlefield. The way Julius Cesar used the rivalries of the various tribes to conquer Gaul is very similar to what the British (and later the Americans) did in North America, 1700 years later.

Speaking of the ancient Romans, many of their political critiques could easily have been written in our time.

But technology is another matter. While Khan and Cesar would be able to understand and recognize the tactics and strategies of later wars of conquest, the same could not be said of the weapons used. There is very little in common with a horse archer and a Abraham tank in that regard (though they are used in roughly the same manner).

So now the question is, do interfaces have more in common with weapons technology or battle strategy?

Education

Submission + - Science and Math Enrollments Reach New High (bbc.co.uk)

ianare writes: There has been a continued increase in the number of students taking A-level science and maths subjects. Physics has been especially popular. A growing fascination with science and teacher support schemes seem to be improving the teaching of maths and physics in UK state schools.

Comment I, Robot (Score 1) 443

Asimov's vision of the world economy being controlled by machines has become reality.

Unfortunately for us, the machines we actually put in place bear little resemblance to those he described. Instead of being programmed with the 3 laws, and therefore a help to mankind by eliminating poverty and famine, we have programmed them to enrich the few at the expense of the many.

Such a system can not, and will not, be sustainable - as History so abundantly proves.

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