cdmsr - Slashdot User

Comment Re:WHAT'S STOPPING US? (Score 1) 585

by cdmsr on Wednesday May 23, 2012 @01:13PM (#40090411) Attached to: BSA Claims Half of PC Users Are Pirates

Good luck trying to combat this myth. I run into this more often than you'd believe. I point out that since Eratosthenes -- who died in 194 BCE -- calculated the circumference of Earth, he must have known it wasn't flat. When someone says 'people thought' or 'people believed' they mean the uneducated masses who haven't improved much since The Dark Ages. (See: Kansas)

Comment Re:Thanks Europe, thanks Russia (Score 1) 85

by cdmsr on Sunday March 25, 2012 @05:25PM (#39468991) Attached to: 'Space Freighter' On Its Way to Resupply International Space Station

If I could ask 'MoonBase' Gingrich one question it would be "Have you met your next wife yet?" He trades in about every eighteen years so Callista's about game over.

Comment Re:Not smart Enough? (Score 1) 1276

by cdmsr on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @02:26PM (#39264203) Attached to: Scientists Say People Aren't Smart Enough For Democracy To Flourish

That 'civics knowledge test' was a favorite tool of the Jim Crow era for the prevention of 'undesirable voters' getting into the voting booth. And you need to think twice about denying the franchise to people who receive "entitlements" or you might find yourself defined out of your own vote. Some people consider Social Security checks, mortgage interest deductions and college loans, "entitlements".

Submission + - Health Care Reform Passes House by 220 -- 215 vote (cnn.com)

Submitted by cdmsr on Sunday November 08, 2009 @12:29AM

cdmsr writes: UPDATE 11:22 pm Eastern according to CNN, the US House of Representatives has passed the Health Care Reform Bill by a vote of 220 — 215.

Submission + - US House Edges Health Reform Forward (nytimes.com)

Submitted by cdmsr on Sunday November 08, 2009 @12:19AM

cdmsr writes: The NY Times reports that the House of Representatives moved closer to a vote on Health Reform by adopting an amendment restricting abortion coverage.

According to the Times' report:

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided late Friday night to allow anti-abortion Democrats to vote for the so-called “Stupak amendment,” named for Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan. The measure, long expected to pass, would tighten restrictions on abortions by prohibiting federal money from being used to pay for the procedure, either through a new federal health insurance plan or under private plans that enroll people relying on federal subsidies."

Placebo Effect Caught In the Act In Spinal Nerves 167

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @09:07AM from the time-to-shut-down dept.

SerpensV passes along the news that German scientists have found direct evidence that the spinal cord is involved in the placebo effect (whose diminishing over time we discussed a bit earlier). "The researchers who made the discovery scanned the spinal cords of volunteers while applying painful heat to one arm. Then they rubbed a cream onto the arm and told the volunteers that it contained a painkiller, but in fact it had no active ingredient. Even so, the cream made spinal-cord neural activity linked to pain vanish. 'This type of mechanism has been envisioned for over 40 years for placebo analgesia,' says Donald Price, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, who was not involved in the new study. 'This study provides the most direct test of this mechanism to date.'"

Submission + - CIT Group Files Capter 11 Bankruptcy (nytimes.com)

Submitted by cdmsr on Sunday November 01, 2009 @08:46PM

cdmsr writes: CIT Group filed for a 'pre-packaged' style bankruptcy on Sunday afternoon.. The 101-year old lender had received $2.3 Billion in bailout fund from the federal government last year in exchange for preferred stock. That money will likely be completely lost as a result of the action today.

Submission + - SPAM: Bill would double cap on H-1B visas

Submitted by alphadogg on Tuesday October 20, 2009 @01:42PM

alphadogg writes: A bill introduced in Congress would double the number of immigrant worker visas available each year under the H-1B program, earning the legislation praise from Microsoft. The Innovation Employment Act, introduced by Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, would increase the cap in H-1B visas from 65,000 a year to 130,000 a year. In addition, there would be no cap on H-1B applications for foreign graduate students attending U.S. colleges and studying science, technology and related fields. Currently, there's a 20,000-a-year cap on visas for graduate students in all fields.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called for an increase in the H-1B visa cap while testifying before the House of Representatives Science and Technology Committee last week, when he said: "We provide the world's best universities ... and the students are not allowed to stay and work in the country. The fact is, [other countries'] smartest people want to come here and that's a huge advantage to us, and in a sense, we're turning them away."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Scareware an "ongoing threat" (zdnet.com)

Submitted by cdmsr on Tuesday October 20, 2009 @01:38PM

cdmsr writes: ZDNet details a report from a year-long study by Symantec that 250 rogue security programs launched some 43 million attempts to prompt user installation between July 2008 and June 2009 mainly targetting English-speaking countries.

Submission + - Organic Molecules Detected in Exoplanet Atmosphere (spacefellowship.com)

Submitted by xp65 on Tuesday October 20, 2009 @01:23PM

xp65 writes: Peering far beyond our solar system, NASA researchers have detected the basic chemistry for life in a second hot gas planet, advancing astronomers toward the goal of being able to characterize planets where life could exist. The planet is not habitable but it has the same chemistry that, if found around a rocky planet in the future, could indicate the presence of life.

Submission + - SPAM: FTC slams MoneyGram with $18M fraud charge

Submitted by coondoggie on Tuesday October 20, 2009 @12:22PM

coondoggie writes: This place sounds like scam central. The second-largest money transfer service in the United States, MoneyGram International today agreed to pay $18 million in consumer redress to settle FTC charges that the company allowed its money transfer system to be used by fraudulent telemarketers to bilk U.S. consumers out of tens of millions of dollars.
[spam URL stripped]
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Ares 1-X On Pad 39B, Launch Set For Oct. 27 (space.com) 1

Submitted by DynaSoar on Tuesday October 20, 2009 @12:11PM

DynaSoar writes: "20 October 2009, 9:13 a.m. EDT. NASA’s new Ares I-X rocket is settling in atop Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a historic seven-hour trek from the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building. The rocket will be secured to the pad for a planned Oct. 27 launch test, set for 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), NASA’s first-ever test flight for its new Ares I-Orion spacecraft launch system." Of interest to engineering types, both those who favor the new vehilces design and its critics, will be to see whether the predicted linear "pogo stick" oscillation will occur, and whether the dampening design built into it prevents damaging and possibly destructive shaking. Extensive coverage is being presented by Spacfe.com at http://www.space.com/special_reports/1x.html Upcoming Ares Events: Friday October 23 Ares I-X Launch Readiness; Monday October 26 Ares I-X Prelaunch Briefing; Tuesday October 27 Ares I-X Launch from KSC. For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

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