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Comment Re:In 2014, racial affirmative action is stupid (Score 1) 410

If you grow up in rich suburbia to parents who care, you will have more opportunity than someone who grows up the ghetto to a single parent that is neglectful.

If you want a level playing field, then look for socioeconomic factors, not race.

Ok . . . so how would that work? A kid applying to college, with parents who care, would get points deducted, because his parents care . . .?

And a kid whose parents don't care would get points added? And plus one for a single parent, minus one for two parents . . . and minus a half point for other relatives living in the house . . . ?

No matter how you try to "level the playing field" . . . it will never be "fair" . . .

Submission + - Scientists Solve Mystery of Quacking Noises in Antarctic Waters (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Since the 1960s, marine scientists have puzzled over the strange quacking sounds they often heard in the icy waters of Antarctica’s Southern Ocean. Submarine personnel first described the oddly repetitive call, which is one of the most common sounds in that ocean during the austral winter. They gave it the name “bio-duck.” The sound consists of a series of pulses with a 3.1-second interval between two series. The sound further stumped scientists when they discovered some years ago that it occurred each winter and spring simultaneously in the eastern Weddell Sea and off Western Australia. Now, cetacean researchers are declaring the mystery solved: Antarctic minke whales produce the calls. The discovery is already providing new insights into the behaviors of this little-known cetacean species, which is the primary target for Japanese “scientific” whale hunts.

Submission + - Supreme Court OKs Stop and Search Based on Anonymous 911 Tips

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police officers are legally allowed to stop and search vehicles based solely on anonymous 911 tips. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority opinion, reasoned that 'a 911 call has some features that allow for identifying and tracking callers' as well as for recording their calls, both of which he believed gave anonymous callers enough reliability for police officers to act on their tips with reasonable suspicion against the people being reported.

The specific case before them involved an anonymous woman who called 911 to report a driver who forced her off the road. She gave the driver's license plate number and the make and model of his car as well as the location of the incident in question. Police officers later found him, pulled him over, smelled marijuana, and searched his car. They found 30 pounds of weed and subsequently arrested the driver. The driver later challenged the constitutionality of the arrest, claiming that a tip from an anonymous source was unreliable and therefore failed to meet the criteria of reasonable suspicion, which would have justified the stop and search. Five of the nine justices disagreed with him.

Submission + - Experts Say Hitching a Ride in an Airliner's Wheel Well Is Not a Good Idea 2

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Hasani Gittens reports that as miraculous as it was that a 16-year-old California boy was able to hitch a ride from San Jose to Hawaii and survive, it isn't the first time a wheel-well stowaway has lived to tell about it. The FAA says that since 1947 there have been 105 people who have tried to surreptitiously travel in plane landing gear world-wide on 94 flights — with a survival rate of about 25 percent. But agency adds that the actual numbers are probably higher, as some survivors may have escaped unnoticed, and bodies could fall into the ocean undetected. Except for the occasional happy ending, hiding in the landing gear of a aircraft as it soars miles above the Earth is generally a losing proposition. According to an FAA/Wright State University study titled “Survival at High Altitudes: Wheel-Well Passengers,” at 20,000 feet the temperature experienced by a stowaway would be -13 F, at 30,000 it would be -45 in the wheel well — and at 40,000 feet, the mercury plunges to a deadly -85 F (PDF). "You’re dealing with an incredibly harsh environment,” says aviation and security expert Anthony Roman. “Temperatures can reach -50 F, and oxygen levels there are barely sustainable for life.” Even if a strong-bodied individual is lucky enough to stand the cold and the lack of oxygen, there’s still the issue of falling out of the plane. “It’s almost impossible not to get thrown out when the gear opens,” says Roman.

So how do the lucky one-in-four survive? The answer, surprisingly, is that a few factors of human physiology are at play: As the aircraft climbs, the body enters a state of hypoxia—that is, it lacks oxygen—and the person passes out. At the same time, the frigid temperatures cause a state of hypothermia, which preserves the nervous system. “It’s similar to a young kid who falls to the bottom of an icy lake,” says Roman. "and two hours later he survives, because he was so cold."

Comment Re:Vigilance (Score 2) 88

by PolygamousRanchKid (#46803781) Attached to: General Mills Retracts "No Right to Sue" EULA Clause

I'm still suspicious on the whole matter. It sounded like that broad disclaimer up front was in preparation for some catastrophic news about a General Mills product. Like, "Cheerios causes Autism!" Or that Wu Tang Clan rapper . . . he wasn't doing any hard drugs . . . but he was eating a bowl of Cheerios, before he chopped off his dick!

General Mills has been slapped by a few damaging lawsuits in the last few years . . . because they were downright lying about the ingredients in their products. This disclaimer would have let them walk away from that.

With that legal wording, they could intentionally put ground glass in their breakfast cereals, without any responsibility to the law.

Comment Re:How is this different than christianity? (Score 1) 186

Have you ever heard a tea-partier say "altruism is evil?" Serious question.

Yes, in a TV interview a Tea Party spokesman who identified himself as John Galt said it. Serious answer.

The Tea Party seems to have a lot of folks named "John". Other Tea Party rally folks said their names were:

John Whorfin
John Bigboote
John Ya Ya
John Small Berries
John Fledgling
John Milton
John Nephew
John Two Horns
John O'Connor
John Grim
John Many Jars
John Coyote
John Chief Crier
John Littlejohn
John Mud Head

Comment Re:They're just avoiding liability (Score 4, Insightful) 332

by PolygamousRanchKid (#46801979) Attached to: Why Portland Should Have Kept Its Water, Urine and All

Obviously, the government is covering something up . . .

. . . maybe the guy dumped a oil drum full of pure LSD into the water, before pausing to take a leak. The authorities are not mentioning the LSD to avoid panicking the public. You don't want to panic the public, while they are tripping their balls off.

. . . or they spotted the Loch Ness Monster, and are draining the reservoir, to catch it in the shallows.

. . . or maybe the guy showed signs of being a zombie, and they need to wait to see if he morphs into one.

Ya gotta try to see through the headlines these days . . . the government is out to stuff you with disinformation . . . and they're always up to something not good . . .

If you're in Portland, I would suggest just drinking pure grain alcohol . . .

Comment Re:Sick Society (Score 2) 253

Grand Arts High School was formerly known as Ramon C. Cortines School for Visual and Performing Arts . . . apparently, lowly science is not a "Grand Art". It doesn't sound like the place you would send your kid to prepare to study Physics at Princeton or Electrical Engineering at MIT. I pity the poor teacher of science or math in a school full of kids from "pushy" parents, determined that their offspring is destined for stardom.

Kinda weird . . . normally we expect the anti-science crowd to come from the religious corner off the ring . . . and low and behold . . . they get upstaged by a "Grand Arts" school staffed by administrators confounded by the entire concept of what "science" is.

"Grand Farts High School", indeed . . .

Comment Re:paper...pencil (Score 1) 170

by PolygamousRanchKid (#46801217) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Professional Journaling/Notes Software?

Plus . . . I haven't seen a Snowden press release yet that the NSA has technology for snooping in pencils and paper. When they come knocking on your door, you can eat your notes. A USB stick will not digest.

Maybe there is some kind of edible rice based paper that would dissolve quickly in the stomach . . . ? In old spy movies, folks used to munch down secret notes all the time.

Comment Re:How is this different than christianity? (Score 1) 186

Imagine if the christian church charged admission for services.

Imagine if a christian church ran a vast real estate and financial empire, built palaces with 15,000€ bathtubs for Bishops of Bling, and systemically obstructed justice in cases of sexual abuse of minors.

Oh, yeah . . . no need to imagine. They should be hit with RICO charges.

I can't see any difference between political action committees and churches. The NRA spends money supporting a pro-gun political platform. Churches spend money promoting their own religious beliefs in political platforms.

Like it or not, those Tea Party folks could probably register themselves as a religion. All those Ayn Rand Objectivism rants, like, "Altruism is evil" sounds like religious beliefs to me.

I think all folks should be free to practice whatever religion they choose, or not choose. However, when their religion is organized into something that walks, talks and acts like a business . . . they have no right to escape the taxman than any other folks.

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