Is this comment serious?

You can stop them from protesting on private cemetery grounds, but you can't stop them from protesting *outside* the funeral, on public property. There's no fundamental difference between what they're doing and a political protester in any other situation. Just because you (or even "everyone") disagree with them doesn't mean that you can interfere with their right to speak their mind freely.

Yes, they're bat-$#!+ crazy, and yes, their ideas are hateful and nonsensical, but that doesn't mean that the First Amendment ceases to apply to them. If it did, then the government could just declare, say, Green Party activists "offensive loonies" and censor their speech as well.

Political protest is the heart of what the First Amendment was designed to protect, and that's not something to be trifled with. Just ask the reform protesters being gunned down in Bahrain and elsewhere...

Watchmen is like the Citizen Kane of comic books --and that's not a good thing.

Citizen Kane was heralded as a great film, but most of that praise was due to the technical and cinematic innovations, rather than the plot. As a result, modern audiences, who've grown up used to seeing those techniques in every movie, generally have no idea why Kane was ever considered great.

Similarly, Watchmen more or less invented the postmodern supehero comic. At the time, its gritty anti-heroic take on superheroes was groundbreaking, fresh and original, which is why it is so well loved by older comic fans. But because it was never made into a movie or TV franchise back in the day, people outside of the comic book community were never exposed to it until now.

The problem is that modern audiences have already seen dozens of similar dark takes on the superhero genre in films and TV. Those people don't know (or care) that Watchmen was first; to them it's just another take on a well-worn theme. Watchmen has become a victim of its own success, to the point where just seems dated by comparison to later works that took its themes and further developed them.

Not sure if you're confused, or just trolling. In any case, his assertion is that the best way to prevent DUI is by raising the penalties so much that they become a more effective deterrent. People would be less likely to push the legal limit if they knew that a tiny bit over the limit == automatic jail time.

Of course this might not deter the hardcore alcoholics. But at least they'd be off the street for a year, and maybe while they're inside they'd sober up long enough to think about what they've been doing (probably a longshot, but hey...).

Liability; if the BAC tester is mis-calibrated, it could lead someone to think they're ok to drive when they're not. If that results in an accident, the bar could be sued over it.

What you're talking about is Overdrive, which is specifically designed to "conserve" energy in that situation by reducing engine drag so that the car coasts further/faster on the residual momentum.

Overdrive is a specific "feature" that can be disabled on most automatics simply by shifting the lever from "[D]" into the top gear number. Some trucks even have two Drive modes, one with Overdrive and one without.

In a hybrid, where the energy siphoned off by engine drag is conserved, there's no real need for Overdrive.

Part of the reason is because of cases like this. The company wants to jump on the new hotness now, and they don't want to wait for their current staff to ramp up their knowledge of the new technology. They'd rather poach a developer from another company that's already working with that tech. That way they don't have to wait, don't have to pay for training, and they're capturing an expert who might otherwise end up working for the competition.

News Flash! Students in conventional schools often memorize facts without truly understanding them!!!!111!

Film at eleven...

In the early days, internet service did not require regulation because there was plenty of competition. The barriers to entry were low; anyone could set up a modem bank and T1 service and start serving dial-up customers. My provider was a local one-man operation, with service just as good as (and cheaper than) the big names.

But with the transition to broadband, the incumbent phone and cable providers gained immense power. Their existing physical infrastructure gave them a largely insurmountable advantage over potential new entrants. This created an effective duopoly, one that still persists today in many markets. In such a situation, the free market cannot function, and government regulation is required to prevent abuses.

Wow, almost the exact opposite of my response. If your post wasn't older, I'd almost think you were trolling me ;)

To wit: If you can't understand the tremendous difference between physical coordination and abstract reasoning/creativity, I feel for ya, but I'm not likely to hire you...

My typing speed maxed out in high school typing class. 15 years of daily programming has done nothing to increase it beyond that level.

There is a wide variability in individuals' ability to type fast; it's one of those things where innate talent really *is* as important as learned skill. But there is no evidence I'm aware that that particular talent is in any way correlated with superior programming ability. It's a matter of physical coordination, which is based in the cerebellum, and has nothing to do with cerebral functioning.

Of course, I consider myself well into the "moderate" range (~50wpm), so maybe I'm not who you're talking about (but then that's Cook's whole point). And I would hope that any serious programmer would take the time to take a typing class, so 2-fingers is indeed a bit suspect. But even now I stumble a bit with the occasional special character (and doubly so when another person is watching). Heck, if I had good coordination, I would would have been an athlete instead! (or a pianist...)

I've been told that this is how it works in at least some European firms. You can take as many sick days as you like, but heaven help you if you aren't at home (or place of treatment) when someone shows up to check on you --and they WILL show up.

The whole point of B&N (or Amazon) releasing their own e-reader is to lock people into buying e-books exclusively from them. I'm wiling to bet that they subsidize the cost of their devices in exchange for the expected profits from this vendor lock-in. If so, then every Nook that isn't used to buy e-books, or that is used to buy e-books from a rival source, represents a net loss for B&N. Allowing the Nook Color to remain rooted would encourage just such alternative uses, which is why I don't expect it to be tolerated.

Currently it's an "X" button that appears to the right of each post when you mouse over it. Click and you'll get options to Hide posts from that user, or from that application if it's an app-generated message (eg. Farmville crud).

I've noticed this myself when watching Netflix streams. I'm only bothered by low picture quality for the first few minutes; once I'm into the story I don't notice it at all. Even crappy "Starz play" is fine after a while. And this is on a 100" projector display.

The Register has an interesting piece on Net Neutrality and Google's co-location deals. El Reg posits that Google is trying to eat its cake and have it too: appearing to be the good-guy by supporting Net Neutrality, while knowing that its own private backbone network and ISP server co-location will give it a de-facto advantage regardless:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/09/neutrality_new_net_hypergiants/