Comment What went wrong? (Score 1) 140
Ask the Chinese government...they have the schematics.
Comment Re:Again Proof RepubliCONS are not about small gov (Score 1) 356
Thank you for pointing out what should have been made know in the article. I've read two stories about this today on web site; neither one bothered to mention her political party. If she were Republican, it would have been (properly) affixed after her name in brackets.
And the person who responded to you that she's "probably" a Democrat in name only is just trying to justify his own world view.
Comment The world will end... (Score 1) 585
...as soon as I drop dead. At least, it'll end for me...
Comment Re:2011 MBP a stinker? (Score 1) 501
The issue here is the 2011 MacBook Pro release, not the one you have. If I paid from $1200 to $2500 for a laptop, I kind of hope it...works.
The companies that have problems with build quality, both hardware and software, SHOULD take heat from consumers about defective products. When Microsoft released Vista, Apple ran with the "Vista Sucks" (I'm a Mac) ads for more than a year. What goes around, come around...
Comment Re:To immediately Godwin the poll... (Score 1) 1270
There were enough mistakes between both parties, and the Clinton and Bush administrations, that Republicans and Democrats need to share the blame equally for the current fiscal fustercluck...
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html
BTW, it's hard to see how a 1.4 trillion dollar annual Federal deficit is really helping matters...
In Case of Emergency, Please Remove Your Bra 123
An anonymous reader writes "Caught in a disaster with harmful airborne particles? You'd better hope you're wearing the Emergency Bra. Simply unsnap the bright red bra, separate the cups, and slip it over your head — one cup for you, and one for your friend. Dr. Elena Bodnar won an Ig Nobel Award for the invention last year, an annual tribute to scientific research that on the surface seems goofy but is often surprisingly practical. And now Bodnar has brought the eBra to the public; purchase one online for just $29.95."
Frustrated Reporter Quits After Slow News Day 178
Norwegian radio journalist Pia Beathe Pedersen quit on the air complaining that her bosses were making her read news on a day when "nothing important has happened." Pedersen claimed that broadcaster NRK put too much pressure on the staff and that she "wanted to be able to eat properly again and be able to breathe," during her nearly two-minute on-air resignation.
KDE SC 4.7 May Use OpenGL 3 For Compositing 187
An anonymous reader writes "KDE SC 4.5 is about to be released and KDE SC 4.6 is being discussed. However, Martin Graesslin has revealed some details about what they are planning for KDE 4.7. According to Martin's blog post, they are looking at OpenGL 3.0 to provide the compositing effects in KDE SC 4.7. OpenGL 3.0 provides support for frame buffer objects, hardware instancing, vertex array objects, and sRGB framebuffers."
Antidepressants In the Water Are Making Shrimp Suicidal 182
Antidepressants may help a lot of people get up in the morning but new research shows they are making shrimp swim into that big bowl of cocktail sauce in the sky. Alex Ford, a marine biologist at the University of Portsmouth, found that shrimp exposed to the antidepressant fluoxetine are 5 times more likely to swim towards light instead of away from it. Shrimp usually swim away from light as it is associated with birds or fishermen.
Comment God will retire me... (Score 1) 409
I'm a self-employed professional. I tell clients if they come in and see me slumped at my desk, I'm retired.
Judge Chin Says He Will Cut the Google Book Settlement 38
Miracle Jones writes "In a move that has shocked the publishing world, Judge Denny Chin has filed a brief saying that he has decided to cut the Google Book Settlement in half, letting Google host the first half of every book the company has scanned, and letting other interested stakeholders fight for the rights to the rest. 'We think this is a hard decision, but a fair one,' said John Peter Franks for Google. 'We would like to be able to host and control whole books, but at least we get the front half.'"
Youtube Pulls Original "Rickroll" Video 97
@VentureBeat writes "Youtube pulled the original 'Rickroll' video Wednesday night. Don't worry, after a lot of email about the loss of such an important piece of cultural history, Youtube put it back up, saying that they're never gonna say goodbye to the video that's had over 30 million views."
Using Infrared Cameras To Find Tastiness of Beef 108
JoshuaInNippon writes "Might we one day be able to use our cell phone cameras to pick out the best piece of meat on display at the market? Some Japanese researchers seem to hope so. A team of scientists is using infrared camera technology to try and determine the tastiest slices of high-grade Japanese beef. The researchers believe that the levels of Oleic acid found within the beef strongly affect the beef's tenderness, smell, and overall taste. The infrared camera can be tuned to pick out the Oleic acid levels through a whole slab, a process that would be impossible to do with the human eye. While the accuracy is still relatively low — a taste test this month resulted in only 60% of participants preferring beef that was believed to have had a higher level of Oleic acid — the researchers hope to fine tune the process for market testing by next year."
Comment Corp v. Govt? Bottom Line: You Lose (Score 2, Insightful) 145
There is another reason for governments to escheat funds that I haven't seen posted. It is a fact that governments make a tidy sum of money off of these transactions, as many escheated funds are never claimed. For some governments, it is a material source of revenues.
For that reason, governments are not aggressive in alerting taxpayers that they are holding their funds. Some US states have an on line mechanism for submitting a claim, and most government put a legal notice in a paper once a year, but the actual process to secure such funds tends to be complex (due to security concerns) and lengthy (because we're dealing with the government, after all).
I personally see it as a fight between two entities (the corporate world v. the government), neither of which is thrilled about giving you your money back...
