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Comment Never had LEGO (Score 3, Interesting) 425

My construction toy was an Erector Set, now long gone. These days Erector Sets in the US are rebranded Meccano sets.
Anyway, the thing about the Erector Set was that it not only exercised your imagination, as does LEGO, but it also exercised your manual dexterity, which LEGO does not. When you have to use little nuts and bolts to put things together you get good at manipulating small parts, which is excellent for improving hand-eye coordination, improving delicacy of touch and learning patience.
If you make things too easy for kids how are they to learn?

Comment I just like the song. (Score 1) 180

Truthy, Indiana,
Truthy, Indiana,
Truthy, Indiana,
That's the site I'm gonna surf.
Truthy, Indiana,
Truthy, Indiana,
Truthy, Indiana,
Tells me if it's astroturf.
If you need to get political explication,
Or to know whether it's data manipulation,
Or perhaps it is an outright prevarication,
There is just one page to fuel your outrage.
Truthy, Indiana,
Truthy, Indiana,
Not O'Reillyana, Beckistan,or Hannitone,
But Truthy, Indiana,
Truthy, Indiana,
Truthy, Indiana,
The real spin-free zone.

My apologies for Hannitone, but once I'd thought of the last line I really needed to make the rhyme work.

Comment One space between sentences (Score 1, Informative) 814

At least, that is the standard in the publishing industry. Two spaces is a convention invented by typing teachers for reasons which I've never understood, and which screws up justification once the document needs to be set. One of the first things that has to be done when bringing a document into a page layout program is to search for periods followed by two spaces and replace them with periods and one space. PITA for the Quark/InDesign/Scribus operator.

Comment What about the pusher? (Score 2, Funny) 804

From the article:
“The Texas Public School Nutrition Policy (TPSNP) explicitly states that it does not restrict what foods or beverages parents may provide for their own children's consumption.
"Brazos Elementary Principal Jeanne Young, said the problem, in this instance, was that the candy was provided by another student – not the girl’s parents."

I think the candy pusher deserves the sentence, not the simple user. This is just like the Rockefeller laws, punishing the victim of sugar addiction rather than the seller. Oh, I know she didn't buy the candy, but the first one is always free, y'know.

Comment Which UN policy did the poster contravene? (Score 4, Interesting) 409

That's not made clear in the article.
Also, it was very odd the way everyone stood around the poster on the floor, not touching it or picking it up, as though it were a diseased, dead body which no one was willing to touch. So they called the police to come an take it away.
Why didn't the folks promoting the book just stand it up again, I wonder?

Comment Re:Use the master password feature and stop worryi (Score 1) 1007

There's also an add-on called Master Password Timeout. You set a period of time after which it will again ask for your master password when you log in somewhere. The security feature here is that if you get a password prompt without expecting it, you'll know that there's some background code on the page poking into places it shouldn't be. It is also good in a workplace if you happen to leave your browser open while away from your desk. Keeps co-workers from checking your webmail, or bidding for you on ebay. I usually set mine for 15 minutes. You can set it to a really short period if your particularly paranoid.
Science

Submission + - Element 114 Verified (physicstoday.org)

ExRex writes: "A team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has confirmed the results of researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, who first reported producing the superheavy element 114 in 1999. Such independent verification is important, particularly given evidence of fabricated results for other superheavy elements.
If you're a subscriber to Physical Review Letters you can download the full article."

Comment Re:Drunk meaning...? (Score 1) 9

Judging from this guy's history, I suspect he'll give himself away. Of course, if he starts to verbally abuse people and piss on shop windows when he's sober he may be able to confuse the issue. Hmm, maybe he'll have more fun pissing about when sober than he did when drunk. He might stop drinking entirely. Though, it does help to refill the reservoir.

Comment California impersonation laws (Score 1) 339

Some excerpts:

CALIFORNIA CODES
PENAL CODE
SECTION 528-539

529. Every person who falsely personates another in either his private or official capacity, and in such assumed character either:
1. (stuff about marriage)
2. Verifies, publishes, acknowledges, or proves, in the name of another person, any written instrument, with intent that the same may be recorded, delivered, or used as true; or,
3. Does any other act whereby, if done by the person falsely personated, he might, in any event, become liable to any suit or prosecution, or to pay any sum of money, or to incur any charge, forfeiture, or penalty, or whereby any benefit might accrue to the party personating, or to any other person;
Is punishable by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by imprisonment in the state prison, or in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

538a. Every person who signs any letter addressed to a newspaper with the name of a person other than himself and sends such letter to the newspaper, or causes it to be sent to such newspaper, with intent to lead the newspaper to believe that such letter was written by the person whose name is signed thereto, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Once the principal has been convicted in court for criminal impersonation the family will have an excellent chance of recouping something.
Of course, they should probably move for a change of venue.

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