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Comment Thank God pearls like these have been preserved ! (Score 1) 414

by morto (#41657291) Attached to: Einstein Letter Critical of Religion To Be Auctioned On EBay
Exodus 21
20: “If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished. "
21: “If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his property."

Thanks to this scrutiny I can learn from Exodus 21 that it is okay to beat the crap out of my slave as long as I do not kill him and Leviticus 12 teaches me that baby girls leave their mothers twice as dirty as baby boys do. In Leviticus 21 I see that no hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles can approach the altar.

Where would civilization be without these priceless advices!

Comment Re:Lack of tolerance to other religions (Score 1) 412

by morto (#41456293) Attached to: Man Arrested In Greece For "Blasphemous" Facebook Page
What you have described is Aristocracy, the government of the elite. The problem is who decides who is best ? Who decides how the tests should be ? The big thing about democracy is not the election of the best but the ability to avoid the perpetuation of the worst. But I know what your mean. Here in Brazil our Democracy is a mix of Kleptocracy (government by burglars - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy) and Kakistocracy (government of the worst - http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kakistocracy). But at least we are free to criticize and change the gang every four years.

Comment FYI: It is ~80K years not 180K. (Score 2) 342

"Studies suggest that anatomically modern humans arose in Africa approximately 150 thousand years ago (kya), expanded throughout Africa ~60–80 kya, and to most parts of Europe and Asia ~40 kya[1]–[6]. Numerous mitochondrial DNA studies support what Foster and Matsumera [5] describe as a ‘remarkable expansion’ from a small geographic region dating broadly to ~60–80 kya." see http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0044926
Facebook

Salesforce CEO Benioff: Future Software Will Look Like Facebook 156

Posted by timothy from the farmville-was-just-the-beginning dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes "Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is unapologetic about his love for Facebook. 'I think all software is going to look like Facebook,' he told media and analysts at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. 'Everyone is going to have to rewrite to have a feed-based platform.' If people can collaborate on tagging a photo, he added, they could easily do the same with a product or business problem. Even as Benioff touted his Facebook love, however, Salesforce is veering away from the Facebook model in one key way: whereas Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg felt his company focused too much on HTML5 for its mobile apps, choosing to focus instead on native-app development, Salesforce is embracing HTML5 for its Salesforce Touch app, which delivers Salesforce data such as Chatter feeds and contacts to a variety of mobile devices."
Censorship

DOJ Asks Court To Keep Secret Google / NSA Partnership 157

Posted by timothy from the can-neither-confirm-nor-deny dept.
SonicSpike writes "The Justice Department is defending the government's refusal to discuss — or even acknowledge the existence of — any cooperative research and development agreement between Google and the National Security Agency. The Washington based advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center sued in federal district court here to obtain documents about any such agreement between the Internet search giant and the security agency. The NSA responded to the suit with a so-called 'Glomar' response in which the agency said it could neither confirm nor deny whether any responsive records exist. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington sided with the government last July."
The Military

Iran's Smart Concrete Can Cope With Earthquakes and Bombs 609

Posted by samzenpus from the built-tough dept.
PolygamousRanchKid writes "Iran is an earthquake zone, so its engineers have developed some of the toughest building materials in the world. Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) could also be used to protect hidden nuclear installations from the artificial equivalent of small earthquakes, namely bunker-busting bombs. UHPC is based—like its quotidian cousins—on sand and cement. In addition, though, it is doped with powdered quartz (the pure stuff, rather than the tainted variety that makes up most sand) and various reinforcing metals and fibers. UHPC can withstand more compression than other forms of concrete. UHPC is also more flexible and durable than conventional concrete. It can therefore be used to make lighter and more slender structures. All of which is fine and dandy for safer dams and better sewers, which threaten no one. But UHPC's potential military applications are more intriguing—and for many, more worrying. Deep bunkers can be tackled in other ways. America's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has looked at what is known in the jargon as functional defeat, in other words bombing their entrances shut or destroying their electrical systems with electromagnetic pulses. They are also working on active penetrators—bombs which can tunnel through hundreds of meters of earth, rock and concrete. Development work is also under way on esoteric devices such as robot snakes, carrying warheads, which can infiltrate via air ducts and cable runs."
Crime

UK Plans Private Police Force 252

Posted by Soulskill from the very-polite-unless-you-spill-their-tea dept.
An anonymous reader writes "'Private companies could take responsibility for investigating crimes, patrolling neighborhoods and even detaining suspects under a radical privatization plan,' The Guardian reports. 'The contract is the largest on police privatization so far, with a potential value of £1.5bn over seven years, rising to a possible £3.5bn depending on how many other forces get involved.' A worrying development in a country with an ever-increasing culture of surveillance and intrusive policing."
The Almighty Buck

Unconstitutional Video Game Law Costs California $2 Million 180

Posted by Soulskill from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In hopes of protecting the children of California from the ravages of violent video games, then governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attempted to push through a law that would fine retailers $1000 for each infraction of selling a violent game to an underage child. However, in the wake of appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down the law, California is now forced to pay the legal fees of all parties to the tune of two million dollars."
Republicans

Santorum Calls Democrats 'Anti-Science' 1237

Posted by Soulskill from the pi-is-exactly-three dept.
ndogg writes with news that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has counterattacked those critical of conservative views on science, saying that they're 'anti-science' themselves. From a CBS report: "In his remarks Monday, Santorum went beyond his usual discussion of the importance of increasing domestic energy production to deliver a blistering attack on environmental activists. He said global warming claims are based on 'phony studies,' and that climate change science is little more than 'political science.' His views are not 'anti-science' as Democrats claim, Santorum said. 'When it comes to the management of the Earth, they are the anti-science ones. We are the ones who stand for science, and technology, and using the resources we have to be able to make sure that we have a quality of life in this country and (that we) maintain a good and stable environment,' he said to applause, and cited local ordinances to reduce coal dust pollution in Pittsburgh during the heyday of coal mining."
IT

Submission + - Looking for a career change ? Here's what it takes (careltranslations.com)

Submitted by
CarelTranslations
CarelTranslations writes: "Ever been in one of those peculiar states of mind where you feel like you are on the very brink of finding your dream career, yet for some annoying reason you can’t quite figure out what you want to do?
Take a look at the list below. If you recognize yourself in all (or most) of these points, there’s a huge chance becoming a translator might appear to be your path to success and joy (careerwise)."
Businesses

Submission + - Who can afford Open Source? (zona-m.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Francesco, a self-employed software developer, just wrote to me to explain why he feels he can't afford to release his school administration software under a FOSS license. In a nutshell, he says that only big organizations can afford that luxury (at least in today's Italy). What do you think?

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