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Comment Re:If It Works, It Works But Remember Your Custome (Score 1) 426

That's great for playing a DVD, but absolutely sucks for a complicated task. I see people spending hours clicking around menu-driven software (eg., SPSS, EPrime, Excel) trying to get something to work because they have been trained to never look at documentation (and be afraid of anything that requires typing). /rant

Comment Re:This ain't a patent troll (Score 3, Insightful) 171

Of course, the thousands of people who spent the prior 50 years developing the *methodologies* that he used, will be locked out of synthetic life until their children are middle aged. Despite romantic ideas, invention is not a solitary operation. He may have been the first to the finish line using "shitloads of money," but patents will do nothing but slow down progress. The world will start working with synthetic life in a quarter century, whereas without Venter and patents, the we would have synthetic life in <5 (at the rate of progress in molecular biology).

Comment Re:Patent violations (Score 1) 399

Clones differ from IBM PC's in similar ways different encoders/decoders differ. Some encoders/decoders will be better or worse quality or speed, written in different languages with different compartmentalization, they often have different options or work in different environments.

Of course, arguing about patents is like arguing about the number of angels that can stand on the head of a pin. It's all ridiculous in the end.
Crime

Justice Not As Blind As Previously Thought 256

NotSoHeavyD3 writes "I doubt this is much of a surprise but apparently Cornell University did a study that seems to show you're more likely to get convicted if you're ugly. From the article: 'According to a Cornell University study, unattractive defendants are 22 percent more likely to be convicted than good-looking ones. And the unattractive also get slapped with harsher sentences — an average of 22 months longer in prison.'"

Comment Re:Other websites knowing your facebook account (Score 2, Informative) 154

For privoxy, I added the following to my user.action file:

{ +block{Facebook privacy invasions} }
http://api.facebook.com/restserver.php
http://www.facebook.com/connect.php/js/FB.SharePro/
http://www.facebook.com/ajax/connect/
http://www.facebook.com/plugins/
http://www.facebook.com/connect/
http://connect.facebook.net/

and saved.

Comment Re:i am smug (Score 1) 334

We'll just cut off your fucking food supply.

Oh, the country boy superiority complex. I almost miss that living in the city now. Yes, I know you masturbate while thinking about starving cities and living off your land with just a shotgun and a plow. It's not like your lifestyle is heavily dependent on industry, like your equipment, your (heavily used) vehicles, or your other supplies, let alone, any other technology you rely on. Unless you are a high-producing farmer (as few "country boys" are), you are actually living a high impact, relatively parasitic lifestyle on the rest of society. Your high mileage pickup truck, large, useless lot of land, and the extensive roadway/electric system to support it all depend on people who consume less and produce more than you.

If you think a new "dark age" will be good entertainment for you from behind the sights of your rifle, you need a little more study of history. Unless you are good at coaxing large numbers of the starving poor to pick up weapons in your name, you will lose anyway.

Comment Re:chiropractor (Score 2, Insightful) 195

In my case, the problem was simple - I was shoveling gravel, moved wrong with a heavy shovel extended, and shifted a bone ever so slightly out of place

I'm sorry, but is that even possible? As far as I know (IANAD or AC)all of our bones are pretty much solidly in place thanks to muscle, ligaments and other stuff. I suspect that if a bone became "out of place" you'd be writhing around in the back of an ambulance, not trekking to mall to find a chiropractor.

You are correct, there is no evidence that the "miss-alignment of bones" that chiropractors "diagnose" exists. They have been shown to, at most, have similar efficacy to physiotherapists when doing the same procedures, and that's about it.

I love how readers just provided *more* testimonials in response to my comment. Seriously people, this isn't how medicine works. There are people who use the *exact same* arguments to support prayer based healing, leeching chemicals for autistic kids, WD-40 for arthritis and all sorts of Woo. Testimonials are *not* valid support for medical treatments. Put up clinical trials or go home.

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