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Comment Re:Question and answer (Score 1) 189

Science asks questions. It is skeptical. This means being skeptical of authority too. This will make the government nervous. They would probably prefer official "scientists" to a bunch of "hacks". This doesn't mean they are right. The government is great at bureaucracy and officiousness, especially if it means they can then exclude otherwise able people who don't toe the party line.

Comment Re:serious (Score 1) 378

I was thinking the same. Instantaneous gratification probably played a hand in this. People are getting used thinking everything is a 24/7 operation and there can't ever be a hiccup.

I don't want to work on Thanksgiving or New Year's or any other major holiday and I feel bad for people who have to because there are customers to satisfy. I'm not talking about police or fire department. But does someone really need to go shopping or to see a movie on a holiday?

Comment Re:Glass users! (Score 1) 469

I'm not sure it will go as smoothly as you think. I think what would probably happen instead is that Google would lobby states (or probably feds, they got enough pull) to pass laws similar to hate crimes, i.e. punch someone wearing Google glass and the prosecutor will throw an additional charge at you specifically intended to punish would-be glassassins. Google can't have a sub-population threatening the cachet of their new shiny.

Submission + - Canadian Official Proposes "Privacy by Design" Principles

memnock writes: NPR covered Ann Cavoukian, the privacy commissioner for Ontario, Canada.
"... She developed a framework for approaching privacy issues back in the 1990s that's been recognized around the world.

Her approach of seven principles, called 'Privacy By Design,' advocates that tech designers and engineers need to bake privacy provisions into their products and work from the start, not as an afterthought."

Comment Re:Holy Biased Presentation Batman! (Score 1) 466

Let's see, 3 out of 4 of those species were also revived by humans. So it seems to me that you've opened your mouth to put in your foot.

Humans have altered the environment in myriad ways. And attempted to alleviate some of the worse changes. Cats on the other hand? I don't see a defense for letting them seriously threaten, possibly eradicate, several species; not just birds. Amphibians, reptiles, small mammals.

If you don't see my point, look at where the "wanton killing" is happening by reading the paper I linked to. Then if you still don't, go ahead and make another personal attack, since you don't seem capable of much else.

Comment Re:The problem with all this... (Score 1) 273

Right now, we pump - oh sorry "inject"- our wastewater from fracking underground. That water contains heavy metals and radioactive components. (Nothing like just making the problem 'go away'.)

Now that these large potential sources are revealed, what's the implications for their purity with that waste being underground also? There is no way to be sure that the wastewater won't find a channel or crack that will let it flow into those reserves.

Comment Re:GOOD. (Score 2) 841

I don't think those people need to commit suicide. I don't feel any sympathy for them at all if they feel like crap.

However, they could start to redeem themselves in my eyes if they PUBLICLY revealed all the wrong-doing. And made it a point to get our public officials to fix the agency and legal system, i.e. courts, that permitted this b.s. in the first place. That'd be a start.

Comment Re:The workers are upset (Score 4, Insightful) 841

If these people are as good as all the stories say they are, and I'm not saying they aren't, you have to wonder, and worry a little, where they will end up. Are they just moving over to a former contracting company and doing the same thing? If so, would that really hamper the NSA? It probably means that former NSA employee, now NSA contractor, is doing the same thing, only getting more money. That doesn't really do anything to rein in the NSA's activity via attrition.

I doubt those former employees will leave the field altogether, since they're probably aces in the field. I'm sure they have ND clauses and other restrictions, but that doesn't mean the security apparatus will shrink a whole lot.

Comment Re:Holy Biased Presentation Batman! (Score 1) 466

There are actual endangered birds that the writers could have used to make the point that turbines might cause some population problems among birds. Whooping Cranes in the Central Flyway (Texas) for example. Or the proposed listing for Red Knot in the Atlantic Flyway (Maryland).

I'm not aware of any whoopers colliding with a turbine yet. Beside the birds that are listed. there are still several species of birds that are declining.

And lots of songbirds migrate at night. I know winds seem to die down at night, but if there is enough of a breeze, especially along a coast, a slow-turning turbine might possibly be quite harmful.

I'm not arguing your bigger point about other sources killing birds. I'm writing more about why worry about eagles, when they're not listed or declining as quickly?

Comment Re:Lovely (Score 1) 381

What are they scared of? The few public officials who think what the NSA and other agencies do is illegal are mostly powerless to stop the offending agencies. There sure isn't a huge popular outcry against the offenders.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of politicians who are more than happy to let the NSA run rampant. Take that idiot Mike Rogers (minute 4:20) for example. Or that guy that wanted all that "transparency" and "change". Where is he now? Oh, yeah, he's pushing them on.

Submission + - FEC will not allow bitcoins from campaign contributors (go.com)

memnock writes: ABC new reports: 'Political organizations can't accept contributions in the form of bitcoins, at least for now, The Federal Election Commission said Thursday.

The commission passed on a request by the Conservative Action Fund, a political action committee, to use the digital currency. That group had asked the FEC recently whether it could accept bitcoins, how it could spend them and how donors must report those contributions. It was not immediately clear whether the same ruling would apply to individual political candidates.'
Slashdot reported earlier this week that other federal agencies have taken positions that may recognize or regulate the currency.

Comment Re:Shame on them (Score 1) 366

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to find it, but there was a thread from several years back where a commenter wrote something like a hockey play-by-play with Jesus as the goalie. I can't do any justice to the thread, but there was something like ... 'he gets the glove on it and Jesus saves for the win!' That was probably the best thread I've ever seen on /.

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