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Comment Re:Mixed feelings (Score 2, Insightful) 238

Having served on two juries in my lifetime (one civil, one criminal) I can attest that in both cases the idiot ratio was definitely > 50%. At least in the criminal trial, what the jury could do was strictly limited by the judges instructions. In the civil case, most of the jurors wanted to vote based on factors that had NOTHING to do with the case we heard. It was a medical malpractice suit and most jurors let their personal experiences with various doctors (good or bad) dictate how they were going to vote, pretty much ignoring the evidence binders and testimony.

Of course one could easily argue I was one of the idiots since I couldn't B.S. my way out of jury duty....

Comment Re:Ahem... it's SF (Score 3, Funny) 798

Now I'm curious what a parasmut novel is.

"He raised his custom matte-black GigaGlock 950 and sighted through the custom Kalishnakova scope. His finger, protected from the moon's harsh atmosphere by his Shinto-Nagakasi Deluxe Combat gloves, tensed on the Bloraskavich trigger. The Kalishnakova was so precise, he could watch his target, sitting atop the Goliathian 4500 heavy tank seven klicks away, light a filtered Tska-Choi cigarette using a MegaBic with custom Tetra-Flint."

Comment Another useful site succumbs to greed? (Score 5, Informative) 202

A friend who manages a restaurant in Watertown MA asked me what Yelp was... She was contacted by someone claiming to be from Yelp with the same pitch.

I knew of Yelp, and used to trust the reviews. But I had already lost respect for them when they obviously sold my e-mail addy, despite claims of confidentiality and my opting out of their mailings.

Comment Re:1000 years? IOW this is yet another wild-ass gu (Score 1) 774

"Assuming" means an assumption is being made. And an assumption is a proposition that is taken for granted, as if it were known to be true. Don't demean it (blah, blah, blah, etc.)

Gee, thanks sensei.

So I'm not allowed to ask where they came up with the number 1000? If I ask such a question, I am somehow 'demeaning a classic tool in science'? I should just take it on faith that its a well founded assumption because you directed me to a Wikipedia page that has nothing to do with the original article?

Get over yourself.

The Military

Researchers To Build Underwater Airplane 263

coondoggie writes to tell us that DARPA seems to still be having fun with their funding and continues to aim for the "far out." The latest program, a submersible airplane, seems to have been pulled directly from science fiction. Hopefully this voyage to the bottom of the sea is of the non-permanent variety. "According to DARPA: 'The difficulty with developing such a craft come from the diametrically opposed requirements that exist for an airplane and a submarine. While the primary goal for airplane designers is to try and minimize weight, a submarine must be extremely heavy in order to submerge underwater. In addition, the flow conditions and the systems designed to control a submarine and an airplane are radically different, due to the order of magnitude difference in the densities of air and water.'"

Comment Re:Interesting (Score 5, Informative) 453

Honor killings as you have read recently about in the media, did not happen in the same country

Are you claiming that 'honor killings' do not occur in India?

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040113/asp/nation/story_2780541.asp

http://www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org/archives/04_0112_in_wrights.htm

Just like any other technology, now that its available, society has to make sense of how best to use it.

Yes, and that is by throwing it in the heap with all the other pseudo-science and outright quackery.

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