Should be boolean

Boolean has_story_been_fact_checked(Object story) {
# Determines if a story has been fact checked before posting
return false;
}

Now, seriously: Taking a reference to story? Taking a reference means that you have the ability to modify the incoming. If you are going to take a reference for efficiency, then at least add "const" to declare that you are not going to alter the news story ...

Ohh, right -- your method is superior, mine doesn't allow the facts to be altered.

Don't worry, we'll make up for it in volume :-)

Is the rescue mission a "We will preach Christianity, and you have to accept it" deal?

Is the food bank a "We provide the food you want", or "We know what's best for you, and we'll tell you what you get" thing?

Have you tried to use the food bank to see how it behaves?

The salvation army here is the local food bank. It is "We have a big box of shelf-stable food that you can take with", with lots of carb-heavy food. Worthless for me. And if you want stuff that isn't in the box, it's "we tell you what's good for you". From people with at best a 35 year old nutrition belief.

That's NOT an error. A classic assumption that complex carbs were somehow better for you was never tested until 1982; it was found to be false, massive amounts of assumptions/beliefs that were based on it was invalidated, yet it is still a common belief of the majority.

(The issue is Glycemic Index, or roughly, how quickly the carbs turn into blood sugar. Turns out that complex carbs can be just as high, especially if it is water-soaked and long-cooked. Turns out that fruit really isn't bad for diabetics, because of lower GI's and fiber content.)

This annoys me two ways.

1: Just because you have an anecdote of someone behaving badly does not mean that everyone behaves badly. "I saw one politician telling lies, therefore all politicians are liars".

2: Did you try to offer to buy food for them, rather than giving them what you thought they needed? Maybe their diet doesn't match yours. I have to be careful about my carb intake, yet even if I tell the people at Salvation Army that I'm diabetic, and even tell them which item I can see on their shelf that I would like, they make a bag of food for me that they insist is good for me -- full of things like rice (Brown, not white, so it's "diabetic safe" -- HA!. They are ignorants, who refuse to acknowledge their ignorance and learn), and, instead of the progressive soup that is actually low enough in carbs to be useful, cans of the cheaper cambells stuff that I can't eat at all, and wound up dumping into a food donation container at the local store. Probably goes right back to the Salvation Army.

3: Did it occur to you that if someone is homeless, they need a steady supply of food, not a large one-time shot. They might need money to buy a little food every day. You want to give them a big lump of food? Where will they put it?

Just because you consider it food, doesn't mean others will. I don't consider bacon, or shrimp, to be food, yet others do. I can't drink milk (even with lactase pills), yet others can. Etc.

Wow.

Thank you for that. I had assumed that maximum size would be limited only by screen resolution (1024 wide), and common to anyone else with the same monitor size.

http://www.schlockmercenary.co...

So I found two different versions of the all-time great game, ... mech battle? Mechforce?

A little searching showed that it had two different names over time (fasa lawsuit perhaps?): Mechforce, and Battleforce.

I *really* wanted to play it.

Sadface; two different versions, and neither would work. One did not give any icons inside the disk window; the other gave the icons, but the main game does not launch.

This is the game that could have really redefined mech combat games. It showed just how badly designed the FASA mech designs were -- and how much the turn-based heat usage of that game was broken.

Simple actions on your turn that would not give you any heat problems with FASA's rules were nightmarishly hot when you have real "heat over time" mechanics -- and the techniques for operating your mech had to change.

I think so, but with birth rates on the decline, how will the giraffes keep their heads up?

*DO* make your browser window full sized.

The size of the window can be determined by the web site, and used to track people. If your window size is the same as most users, you're just a blip. But if your window size is unique, you stand out as an individual.

So let me see if I understand this game:

1. Left/right do not move you left and right; they tilt your front up and down.
2. Up and down do not tilt your front up and down, so you can maneuver around rocks and potholes; they move you forward and backwards.
3. Although the real rover is driven slowly, and you can pause and think, this is an arcade game, and as soon as you start moving, you have to maintain at least 55 MPH or you go kaboom.
4. Your forward vision is artificially restricted to barely a second of motion so you can't even be aware of problems in advance.
5. The real rover can turn. But instead of a "rover-eye's view", showing you a field that you could turn left or right in, all you can do is straight, or slow down and die, or run fast ahead and crash.
6. The actual map is constant, so it's a matter of memorizing when to lift, when to speed up, when to coast, etc.
7. It has more in common with managing your way through Scramble's later maps, at higher difficulty levels, than with piloting a real-life rover
8. And ... I had to enable how many things from NoScript before I could even get to the game, and then a bunch more to play the game?

Sheesh.
Did someone post a link to Moon Rover?

Larry Niven, "A Gift from Earth", and many other stories -- "The Long ARM of the Law".

Very much worth reading. Speaks volumes about the importance of a good justice system, and not dealing harsh penalties for bad reasons.

No, I mean I passed the card in front of the screen, not inside the card reader.

The card does have those three nested arcs that look like it might be a radio signal, a wifi indicator, or some sort of transmission thingie.

Funny; guess WHICH card it was that prompted me to write in to Slashdot about this :-)

Unfortunately, all these new features come with websites that insist on them or won't work.

You really want to know problems? Play with ESR. The "long term stable" release. Major features/changes tend to land right after an ESR release.

Staying on ESR means fewer changes, no more nightly surprises, no more constantly changing interface every 6 weeks, etc.

BUT ... since major features come out the next 6 week cycle? Websites wind up using them. Suddenly, the long-term stable system becomes unable to access site after site.

And you want to use something even older? Good luck.

^^^ MOD PARENT UP ^^^