It did. Sort of.

The emacs dude ran M-x knife-fight.

The vi dude ran :s/knife/pillow/g.

The rest of the fight was obscured by flying feathers.

Let's see ... they were fighting over Android vs. iPhone. That sounds like many Slashdot posts on a typical day. So yes, it's news for nerds.

I'm just going to leave this here.

Didn't it just bend? :-P

I assume you're implying radiation pressure could push things out of orbit. Perhaps, but that device doesn't demonstrate radiation pressure.

The Crookes Radiometer depends on air molecules being present to work. It spins with the dark side of the veins trailing, in the opposite direction you would expect from light pressure (for which the light side has a greater impulse due to recoil of the photons instead of absorption.)

In theory, radiation pressure could indeed push objects out of orbit, but I'm too busy/lazy right now to run the numbers to find out how much energy it would require. Also, consider Newton's third law: any decent impulse given to space junk by the ISS using radiation pressure would affect the ISS as well.

That argument is defeated easily. If a criminal convicts a crime for which the sentence is death, then obviously the sentence was not a deterrent.

On the contrary. The purpose of a deterrent is to discourage someone from committing a crime in the first place. That is fundamental, not "nice to have."

I agree completely. I just thought I'd start the thread with the pragmatic reasons, because they tend to make proponents less defensive. And that reminds me of another one: the lack of evidence that it is an effective deterrent compared to incarceration:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.or...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-...

Put them in jail instead.

It's cheaper and a wrongful conviction can be reversed.

The majority of countries no longer have the death penalty.

Sorry. I didn't get the reference, and I (mis)read "he did kill Goebbels" as meaning Goebbels in the plural.

The eldest child was 12 when she was poisoned, along with her siblings. His children could hardly be considered guilty of anything.

The guy was bad news. Even killing himself hardly qualifies as an act of redemption.

Yup. Corrected quote (still without a source):

Dogs think they're humans. Cats think they're God.

You know, you don't have to use beta.

As a condition of bail? Yes, I think so. See other posts here.

AFAIK, the unemployment office treats fired and laid off the same way. What they might treat differently is a voluntary resignation. The resignation would have to be truly voluntary, i.e., you were not forced to resign in some way, otherwise it would be the same as being fired.

Dog think they're family. Cats think they're God. -- Origin unknown