Comment Re:Never gonna happen. (Score 1) 472
What was it that I read here one time? Something like 93% of US drivers believe they drive better than average.
Comment No (Score 1) 682
A 4-year-old does not need a telephone. If you want to talk to him, arrange to do it on the wall phone at the place where he is being cared for by a responsible adult.
Comment Re:republicans (Score 1) 378
Need I point out that most billionaires are democrats or independents?
Wait, I'm confused. I thought the billionaires were the job creators. Then why are the Republicans fighting so hard to keep them from paying higher taxes?
Comment Missing option: I don't know (Score 1) 290
I have no idea whether Verizon FiOS caps bandwidth, but I haven't observed any bandwidth problems even with a teenager in the house. It would be interesting to hear from other FiOS subscribers.
Comment Re:No utility whatsoever? (Score 1) 176
Search for Amazon: looks like it simply redisplays the Amazon mobile site in an app and adds a few features e.g. writing a review into the native interface. In the absence of an official Amazon app for the Blackberry, it may well be useful for the avid Amazon shopper.
Given the tortoise-like speed of BlackBerry's web browser, just about anything that could be done on the web is better done in a BlackBerry app. When Google made a search app that ran on my BlackBerry, I used it all the time. Then I lost my copy of that app in a wipe/reload, and the newer version of their app won't install on my device, so now I have to use the web browser. In the time it takes for the search page to load, I can generally get to a computer or Android tablet and enter my query there instead. (Admittedly, I'm using a 3-year-old device on Verizon 3G, but still....)
Fifteen Years After Autism Panic, a Plague of Measles Erupts 668
DavidHumus writes "Some of the longer-term effects of the anti-vaccination movement of past decades are now evident in a dramatic increase in measles. From the article: 'A measles outbreak infected 1,219 people in southwest Wales between November 2012 and early July, compared with 105 cases in all of Wales in 2011. One of the infected was Ms. Jenkins, whose grandmother, her guardian, hadn't vaccinated her as a young child. "I was afraid of the autism," says the grandmother, Margaret Mugford, 63 years old. "It was in all the papers and on TV."'"
Comment Re:bumblebees have a Cv of 0.189? (Score 1) 353
That's interesting. Thanks!
Comment Re:bumblebees have a Cv of 0.189? (Score 1) 353
When I was in high school, it was given as fact that the bumblebee is too unstable to fly. Has that changed? (Yeah, I know, stability isn't the same thing as a low drag coefficient, but I still had to ask the question.)
Comment Re:pretty much required, isn't it? (Score 1) 402
This is the D.C. government we're talking about. Procurement irregularities there have kept investigative reporters employed there for decades.
Comment Re:Barnes & Noble closed the profitable store (Score 2) 330
Ditto. I find it particularly galling that Manassas still has a B&N but that the Reston area, with higher incomes & education, has none.
Comment Re:And? (Score 1) 295
The "fact" sheet is gone. It turns up in a search using their search engine, but the file itself has been removed. I wonder whether it's because it's inaccurate or whether they don't like getting a gazillion hits from /.
US Senators: NSA Lies In Fact Sheets 295
Bruce66423 writes "The Guardian reports that two U.S. senators have written to the NSA telling it to amend its 702 provisions fact sheet (PDF) which, they claim, contains inaccuracies. However they can't actually say HOW they are inaccurate, because they would be compromising classified information. So the U.S. government uses taxpayer money to lie to the people... there's a surprise!"
From the letter: "In our judgment, this inaccuracy is significant, as it portrays protections for Americans' privacy as being significantly stronger than they actually are." But they go on to say "We appreciate your attention to this matter. We believe that the U.S. government should have broad authorities to investigate terrorism and espionage, and that it is possible to aggressively pursue terrorists without compromising the constitutional rights of ordinary Americans. Achieving this goal depends not just on secret courts and secret congressional hearings, but on informed public debate as well."
Comment /. is my news aggregator (Score 1) 335
Seriously. I tried Google Reader, and I kept forgetting to look at it.
Comment Re:Why not just 0? (Score 1) 996
The BAC was reduced last year from 0.08 to 0.05. in our province. It did not lead to a huge rise in BAC convictions, nor it did not lead to any lessening of the social stigma associated with drunk driving. What it did is make our roads safer.
Do you have accident counts to back that up? I find it hard to believe if the conviction rate (and presumably the arrest rate) didn't go up. I was all behind MADD until they continued lobbying for lower BAC levels after the limit was set to 0.008. It gets to a point of diminishing returns. The people getting into accidents seem to be way over 0.008, and rather than enlarge the net, the government needs to concentrate on preventing the ones caught DWI at existing levels from driving.
Comment Re:Start with your politics (Score 1) 405
Perhaps you should make bribes illegal before you ask the people accepting those bribes to change any important laws...
Actually, in the U.S., bribes are illegal. The problem lies either in the definition of the term or in a closely related term, "influence".
Another problem, not exactly bribery or influence, is the problem that both parties seem to place more emphasis on making the other one look bad and lose seats, to the point that we end up seeing them take positions that are exactly the opposite of one formerly held just because the other party is now in favor of it. Examples include the 2009 healthcare act, passed by Democrats but originally proposed by Republicans a decade earlier, and the Republican flip-flopping over whether the budget should be balanced. (I'm sure there are examples of Democratic flip-flopping, but I admit of a bias that makes the Republican transgressions easier to see.)
