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Comment I can't see the legitmiacy here. (Score 2) 461

I cannot see how the argument for 'prayer' is legit on logistical or supernatural grounds. There is no clear public benefit here to release this information to this person for the purposes of his own (I guess) spiritual needs. I'd even be hard pressed to make the case if he wanted to do direct health outreach. The licensees can be reached via the places of employ.

Furthermore, one can readily presume that if you are prying for someone to an allegedly omniscient being, he/she/it would be able to work out the details.

Comment Pre (Score 1) 114

I don't really understand why nearly 5 years after the palm pre, this isn't a built in feature at this point. The market is running more and more toward unopenable, and unserviceable phones anyway. The inductor back panel for my pre was exactly the same size as the factory one.

That being said, webOS let you do things current phones cant to... :|

Comment Half Life did it first... (Score 1) 123

So HL2, came out in back in 2004 had this quote in it, from the character of Dr Breen : Are all the accomplishments of humanity fated to be nothing more than a layer of broken plastic shards thinly strewn across a fossil bed, sandwiched between the Burgess shale and an eon's worth of mud?

While certainly this is not a surprise consequence to anyone in a scientific field(s) involved. I find it somewhat ironic that the sentiment (no pun), showed up in a video game.

Comment Changing the rules, except the permanent ones (Score 1) 288

It seems that the logic here might not be applied consistently.

If we are shortening password change time for poor passwords, under the argument they are easy to crack; then likewise hard passwords that would take a "forever" to crack should have no expiry. The rules have decided to be altered, except for the ones that are established orthodoxy, those must blindly be followed without adjudication for all time.

Perhaps the real pavolvian behavior here is the bell that rings every 90 days.

Comment Re:States Rights (Score 1) 665

All science, including the technology robots are built on, is an outgrowth of the scientific method. Research, reasoning, and altering your path based on data. If you wish to reject that method when building robots, that's cool. You are going to get a shitbot. You want to reject one of the consequences of scientific research, I call on you should reject all the outputs of scientific research. To assert that the method of gaining knowledge only works as long as you get to ignore the parts that you don't think you "use", or "agree with". Well then you'd a damned fool, and I suggest you return to the stone age animal herders afraid of the night.

Comment Re:States Rights (Score 1) 665

While I don't dismiss trade style training programs or apprenticeships, no part of US high school education make you an expert in anything. The idea, however, of forcing every student into advanced section of every topic is foolish, few people do well in all areas all the time. I excelled in the hard sciences, I could have also excelled in history, but I just didn't care; now oddly I have a not insignificant interest in politics and policy, while my job is IT.

Short version, calculus isnt for everyone, and trying to make every child pass calc is a filing venture. However having basic exposure to the whole set of topics breeds a better base for success than trade only (excluding everything else) programs.

Comment Re:States Rights (Score 4, Insightful) 665

Unfortunately, it will take the child until they are 20 or so to feel the full effects of being poorly educated, worse, being denied the tools of critical thought. At that point bringing that person up to the capability to deal with the technology of the workplace that will face them in 2030 will be nearly insurmountable.

The mere fact that someone should be able to assert that any old idea they have, has equal supportability because of what they assert semantics of words to be, is wrong at best, and megalomaniacal at worst. And we all know that this isn't about "alternate 'theories'" this is about attacking things that don't support the christian creation myth.

I challenge *any* "teach the controversy" supporter to lay out their syllabus and rubric for *ALL* alternative science theories. As it has been stated above, it would have to include astrology, and alchemy, probably phrenology, humors, and I guess demonic possession.

You cannot be honest in this "teach the controversy" thing and only do one piece. Doing so is really a lie to yourself, and everyone knows it.

The Courts

Court Victory Gives Blogger Same Speech Protections As Traditional Press 137

cold fjord writes "Reuters reports, 'A blogger is entitled to the same free speech protections as a traditional journalist and cannot be liable for defamation unless she acted negligently, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. Crystal Cox lost a defamation trial in 2011 over a blog post she wrote accusing a bankruptcy trustee and Obsidian Finance Group of tax fraud. A lower court judge had found that Obsidian did not have to prove that Cox acted negligently because Cox failed to submit evidence of her status as a journalist. But in the ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Cox deserved a new trial, regardless of the fact that she is not a traditional reporter. "As the Supreme Court has accurately warned, a First Amendment distinction between the institutional press and other speakers is unworkable."... Eugene Volokh, [a] Law professor who represented Cox, said Obsidian would now have to show that Cox had actual knowledge that her post was false when she published it. ... "In this day and age, with so much important stuff produced by people who are not professionals, it's harder than ever to decide who is a member of the institutional press."' Further details are available at Courthouse News Service."

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