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Comment Re:And this is why (Score 1) 322

It's not a crazy law. The problem isn't the law, and the problem for Assange isn't facing the charges - even if he is guilty it won't be a big deal. The problem is that there is still some chance that Sweden will extradite him to to the US. And Assange's fellow Australian's will miss out on a chance to vote him into the Senate.

But don't blame the Swedish law; it's just a more advanced country in regards to the human rights of women in this area.

Comment Re:why care? (Score 1) 257

Let us turn to the Oxford English Dictionary.

"Egoism" and "egotism" are distinct words, each of which have more than one meaning. Definition three for egoism is "sytematic selfishness". Definition four for egotism is "selfishness". So, despite the difference in their meanings, the two have definitions which overlap to mean "selfishness".

Egoism and egotism therefore can be use interchangably if you are descibing a person in a state of selfishness. In other uses the words would not be able to be used interchangably (i.e. an "egoist" is a person who holds with a particular ethical theory (egoism). An egotist is not.)

Thank you for this opportunity to be semanitc.

Comment Re:Correlation != causation (Score 1) 252

Parisite is in mouse, wants to be in cat, parisite biologically iteracts with mouse so mouse it is attracted to cat urine, parisite successful. Burger is in McDonalds, wants to be in you, burger biologically interacts with you so you are attracted to Mcdonalds, burger successful. "Burger" is a species. They act with a group mind.

Comment Re:Does staring at a Computer Screen all day count (Score 1) 149

Cancer.

Working nights is listed as a possible carcinogen by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer). The link that has the biggest research base is between breast cancer and night work. The dominant theory is that circadian disruption caused by exposure to light at night lowers melotonin production which is either a causal factor in cancers or supresses protective mechanisms. So, too much sunlight in the day causes skin cancer, too much artifical light at night possibly causes breast cancer.

Comment Re:Are we talking human on human battles? (Score 1) 892

... and if they make it this far, they aren't going to waste their precious resources trying to kill us.

Humans - at the time - went a "long way" to discover America/Australia etc etc and certainly killed the local inhabitants. Sometimes this was deliberate (shoot 'em) and sometimes this was accidental (common, harmeless diseases that were deadly to them). The best that could be hoped for is that they were "integrated" into the new society in a way that may have been well meant, but ended up causing massive problems to those peoples even hundreds of years later. And they were the same species. Other species we plucked, roasted, hung their teeth around or necks etc. OK - aliens may be different. Or may be the same.

Australia

Submission + - Dolphins using tools to fish (discovery.com)

electrons_are_brave writes: A press release from Murdoch University in Australia has anounced that a group of bottle nosed dolphins are "conching" (using a conch shell to both fish with and direct the captured fish into their mouth). Researchers plan to track the horizontal spread of the behaviour which they assume will occur due to observational learning. They say this is the first time such a project is being undertaken.

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