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Submission + - Space radiation may damage astronauts' brains (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: NASA hopes to send the first round-trip, manned spaceflight to Mars by the 2030s. If the mission succeeds, astronauts could spend several years potentially being bombarded with cosmic rays—high-energy particles launched across space by supernovae and other galactic explosions. Now, a study in mice suggests that these particles could alter the shape of neurons, impairing astronauts’ memories and other cognitive abilities.

Comment Re:Seems he has more of a clue (Score 1) 703

Creationists have a stronger leg to stand on than climate change deniers.

Creationism is still a valid theory, it's just one completely bereft of scientific evidence to support it. But if God showed up and started performing Deity-ish things, science would have to accept it as fact.
Climate change denialists however are screaming "THERE IS NO GOD!" while He is standing in front of them juggling lightning bolts.

Comment Re:A sane supreme court decision? (Score 1) 409

To be honest, I figured that it /had/ to be a bad ruling and spent a while trying to understand why it was wrong, just because of how they've been lately. Perhaps I'm just paranoid.

Drug dogs just don't have enough lobbyists paying every nephew and 3rd cousin twice removed each justice has to get a "typical" ruling.

Comment Standard political platform conformity is news? (Score 1) 653

So, there's a Republican candidate running on a platform of "I vow to say that anything a Democrat says or does is Unamerican, Treasonous, a war on Religion (Christianity of course being the only valid religion) and/or hypocritical. How? Mainly by waiting for them to say how everything I believe in is discriminatory and disgusting then attacking them as hypocrites and liars because they only criticized me for saying I think gay people are subhumans who don't deserve the same rights as people who live by the tenets set forth in a 2000 year old novel, while completely failing to mention some some 3rd world Warlord who kills gay people outright. I will then go on Fox News and tell the world how it's Hillary and Obama's fault that the Warlord hates gays because they failed to go back in time and make Richard Simmons answer a fan letter that was sent by said Warlord to him in 1979; all while Sean Hannity performs analingous on me just off camera."
What makes that newsworthy?

If /. plans to report on every bit of stupidity that falls out of political candidates mouths, well... it'll be just like every other "news" site in the U.S.

Comment Re:I think it's already been used (Score 2) 76

The U.S. has had hemostatic dressings since at least World War II. Soldiers carried a mix of sulfanilamide, aluminum sulfate and titanium dioxide, the use of which is still taught at the US Army Combat Medic school and the USAF Pararescue School. Although in practice, the military now uses modern Combat Gauzes like Quik Clot, Celox Gauze and ChitoGauze on the battlefield.

Comment Re:Memorizing site-unique passwords isn't possible (Score 1) 267

Password managers aren't a magic solution either as someone with a camera phone and a good angle or infection by a simple keylogger can negate any security a password manager can provide. Plus, they give attackers a single point of focus to gain access to all your passwords for every website you use (and potentially more if you use form fill in features to store credit card info) in a very handy reference list. Like everything else, they're only a secure as the weakest point in the chain between you and whichever manager you use.

The only real solution for people who value their online identity is to never establish one at all. And even then someone might establish one in your name if they get access to the right records database. All anyone can really do is try to find a solution that is convenient and not stupidly insecure while ensuring they know how to minimize the damage if/when their information is compromised in some way (watch bank and credit card statements, check credit report frequently, etc..).

Comment Re:Best buy (Score 2) 198

Of course! I frequently go to Best Buy to shop for things.

Then I buy them online from a retailer that charges at least 30% less (usually Amazon) and doesn't grill me for a half hour when I have to return something their employees broke tossing boxes around.

Comment Re: Oblig (Score 1) 662

Being handed a box with the contents of your office by security along with a document from the legal department that detail which clause(s) of your contract have been breached so they can avoid having to pay you for the remainder of the contract term and void any golden handshake provisions in the contract is how people with contracts get fired.
Not having your contract renewed is akin to being given a gold watch and cake.

Comment Re:Memorizing site-unique passwords isn't possible (Score 1) 267

I prefer simple, personal methods easy for humans to remember but difficult for machines to guess. Things like passages out of a favorite book, modified versions of song lyrics, etc.
For example, take the first half of a chorus from one song and a the last half of a verse from another by a different artist of a different genre and combine them and you have a multiple word pass phrase that's easy to remember . Even if the attacker knows to use song lyrics, with so many songs out there and ways to vary how you use their lyrics, it'd still be very difficult to break by machine.

Comment Re: Oblig (Score 1) 662

Apparently, he didn't get sacked. They're just not renewing his contract. Which means he gets to sit on his ass and get paid by the BBC while fielding offers from pretty much every other media company in the world until his contract expires while the guy he punched no longer gets to work for one of the most prestigious show brands in the world.

So, the guy he punched will likely end up on some doomed BBC 2 reality show, The BBC loses a 28 year old brand and a show that brought in over $50 million/year while Clarkson (and potentially May and Hammond) get to find someone willing to pay for the talents honed at the BBC without (apparently) being subject to the no-compete clause and the anger of Top Gear fans that quitting would have subjected them to.

And prosecution? It's England, not the U.S. It was a simple assault by a drunk old man at a pub with with the victim saying publicly that he sustained only minor injury. If Britain imposed prison time for that they'd have more people in jail than the US does every time the World Cup came round. At most he'll get a £500 fine and have to get some counseling.

Comment Re:Let me fix that for you... (Score 2) 662

He never went on a Michael Richards-esque racist rant or anything. He's a comic in the vein of Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and Richard Pryor. Most people get it. Some don't and some just like to get offended because it allows them to express hate toward others in a way that's not only currently socially acceptable, but often encouraged.
Being offended gives them a power over others that they could never have if their brand of self righteous hate wasn't as accepted now as racist hate was in the past. That sort of person is absolutely giddy when someone like Jeremy Clarkson get ordered to the back of the bus.

But inevitably, he doesn't go quietly and meekly to the back, he gets off the bus and drives beside it in a Veyron, revving the engine to redline and laughing at the people offended by the noise.

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