Comment Re:Meditations on First Philosophy (Score 1) 165
Interesting, thanks.
Comment Re:If you are worried about it... (Score 1) 791
You start with a theory.
These cigarettes are not causing any harm because all of its effetcs are, [here comes your explanation/theory].
Not just "let's do science" and you hand out cartons of cigarettes and if no one gets sick, then you conclude it's fine.
The theory regarding smoking is what the common sense dictates. Inhaling ash is bad.
In case of the microwave the common sense is nothing, we can't even see it. Most people associate microwave radiation with microwave ovens, which do heating by creating magnetic fields changing over time to cause tiny molecules to wiggle, thus increase their entropy, energy, temperature. And it's just coincidence that these magnetic fields have a frequency of approx. 2.45 GHz.
So, OP should consider it a form of free heating in the winter, and sit outside in his pool on the top of Manhattan in the summer.
Comment Re:Meditations on First Philosophy (Score 1) 165
Then why conduct nonsense science? If he valued his life more than integrity, fine. But he could've had both, by simply not touching touchy subjects.
Comment Re:Meditations on First Philosophy (Score 1) 165
How can you reach the conclusion that there is a creator from the proposition "I think therefore I am"? I'm genuinely curious.
Linux 2.6.33 Released 17
diegocg writes "Version 2.6.33 of the Linux kernel has been released. This version includes the Nouveau driver, Nintendo Wii and Gamecube support, DRDB, TCP 'cookie transactions,' a syscall for batching recvmsg() calls, several new perf subcommands (perf probe, perf bench, perf kmem, perf diff), experimental support for cache compression through swap, Xen PV-on-HVM support, drivers for virtual network and graphic cards from VMWare and other improvements. See the full changelog here."
Latvian "Robin Hood" Hacker Leaks Bank Details 170
eldavojohn writes "Move over Russell Crowe, an anonymous hacker in Latvia is being hailed as a real life modern Robin Hood. The hacker refers to himself as 'Neo,' claims allegiance with the Fourth Awakening People's Army, and is outing banks that are capitalizing off of the horrible economic status Latvia is currently suffering from. No word on how he is acquiring the information but it is slowly being leaked to TV sources via Twitter and the common people love him. The hacker is thought to be based in Britain but a TV reporter pointed out the fine line Neo is walking, 'On the one hand of course he has stolen confidential data ... and he actually has committed a crime. But at the same time there is value for the public in the sense that now a lot of information gets disclosed and the whole system maybe becomes a little more transparent.' An example of a juicy tidbit he revealed is that managers of a Latvian bank did not take the salary cuts they promised they would after the government bailed them out of economic trouble. You can imagine that taxpayers were upset and thankful they knew this information."
Submission + - Major limit on Miranda Rights (wtop.com)
yakatz writes: The supreme court put a major limit on the 40 year old Miranda Rights on Wednesday, when they said that requests for a lawyer expire after 14 days.
The Billion Dollar Kernel 289
jesgar writes "The Linux kernel would cost more than one billion EUR (about 1.4 billion USD) to develop in the European Union. This is the estimate made by researchers from the University of Oviedo (PPT), whereby the value annually added to this product was about 100 million EUR between 2005 and 2007 and 225 million EUR in 2008. The estimated 2008 result is comparable to 4% and 12% of Microsoft's and Google's R&D expenses on whole company products. Cost model 'Intermediate COCOMO81' is used according to parametric estimations by David Wheeler. An average annual base salary for a developer of 31,040 EUR was estimated from the EUROSTAT. Previously, similar works had been done by several authors estimating Red Hat, Debian, and Fedora distributions. The cost estimation is not of itself important, but it is an important means to an end: that commons-based innovation must receive a higher level of official recognition that would set it as an alternative to decision-makers. Ideally, legal and regulatory frameworks must allow companies participating on commons-based R&D to generate intangible assets for their contribution to successful projects. Otherwise, expenses must have an equitable tax treatment as a donation to social welfare."
Google Italy Execs Convicted Over YouTube Bullying Video 391
FTWinston writes "Three Italian Google executives have been convicted of privacy violations in Italy over the contents of a YouTube video showing a boy with Downs syndrome being bullied — despite the fact that the video was removed as soon as it was brought to their attention, and that Google assisted the authorities in locating those who posted it. Prosecutors argued that Google should have sought the consent of all parties involved with the video before allowing it to go online. Quite how they were meant to achieve this is another matter."
Google has responded by saying this is a Serious threat to the web.
Comment Re:Yay! (Score 1) 218
Pfizer spent most of that $48 billion on premiums, marketing, direct marketing doctors and hospital managers to Hawaii, etc..
Comment Re:MIT (Score 1) 74
How long can they last? Doesn't emitting ions cause the emitter to simply vaporize over time?
Comment Re:A comment from Tynt (Score 1) 495
How exactly is this spying? They, at best, have your IP, some text and a few cookies from that domain. What could anyone do with the fact that you've been reading this and this at some site?
It's not like someone is constantly sending your passwords to a 3rd party. It's as harmful as someone seeing you read the news as you commute, wait at an airport, etc..
(NYT uses something similar; they seem to try to block blacklisted users from copying their text.)
Comment Re:Why collect that data? (Score 1) 495
JS can't read from the clipboard, only write to. So your passwords are safe.
Wireless Power Group Sees Standard Within 6 Months 152
alphadogg writes "The group developing a standard for wireless charging expects to complete its first specification within six months, opening the door for makers of cell phones, digital cameras and other devices to bring compatible products to market. Wireless charging lets consumers place gadgets on a mat that plugs into a wall outlet, and have the devices recharge automatically without needing to plug in each one. Apart from the gee-whiz factor, it's supposed to make life more convenient by letting people walk into their home or office, toss their gadgets onto a mat to recharge and forget about them."
The Gradual Erosion of the Right To Privacy 234
PeteV writes "There is an interesting article on the BBC's website based around research carried out by Dr. Kieron O'Hara of Southampton University. He points out that under British law, an individual's right to privacy is being eroded by the behavior of those who have no qualms about broadcasting every intimate detail of their life online (via social networking sites) because the privacy law is predicated in part upon the concept of a 'reasonable expectation of privacy.' I think his request 'for people to be more aware of the impact on society of what they publish online' is likely to fall on deaf ears, but in effect what he is saying is that the changing habits of the world-wide community of social networkers is likely to have an effect upon English law and how it is interpreted. Given that the significant bulk of social networkers are American, this might mean 'American behavior' could cause changes in the interpretation of English law (which is not to say English people don't also post their intimate details on Facebook)."
