Comment Re:Fuck off (Score 0) 109
This site has been completely taken over by man-hating feminists.
Well, you're not enough of a man to be a target so don't worry about it.
Comment Re:Stupid. (Score 2) 247
People made the same comment when the gestapo came for the Roma, and then the Jews. People talk about the slippery slope because it's real. In the mean time, we'll welcome people who want to build out new manufacturing workspace.
Well done, Godwin.
"If you put this murder in jail now, next it'll be the Roma, then the Jews. Argle bargle ``Hitler!''"
Also, manufacturers won't likely be too upset by being required to put some solar panels up, which will eventually save them some money by the time they've depreciated to worthless. Then will continue saving them money on electrical and cooling costs.
Comment Re:Getting sued costs money (Score 1) 52
it might if it draws more customers to TekSavvy.
Well, they're getting a new customer for their DSL and TekTalk services next week.
To be honest, we're switching my Mom to them not because of this decision but because I'm a satisfied customer.
But the timing is excellent.
Also, during March, TekSavvy is waiving the $50 activation fee on DSL, so another excellent reason to sign up now.
Tell 'em CID135285 sent you - I then get a diminutive but helpful $1 / month off my bill for each referral.
If TekSavvy turns around and advertises the fact that they are an ISP willing to standup for their customers that would work well in their favour I'd imagine.
As much as I despise advertising, I do wish TekSavvy got the word out more about themselves. No one here in BC seems to have heard of them.
I seem to recall a bus stop ad one time, and I don't have TV or radio, so I may miss their adverts, but they need to get their name out there better and not just with the "Tech Savvy" folks who might want to "pirate" content, but with everyone.
Comment Re:Oblig (Score 2) 124
How about, "Hey, check out the lava tubes on the moon."
"Hey, that's no moon!"
"Heh heh, and that ain't a 'lava tube' either!"
Comment Re:I see a problem here and it isn't Snowden/Germa (Score 1) 337
Thus as we hear about judge after judge giving their blessings to insanely unconstitutional behaviour, and we hear about watchdogs that aren't watching keep in mind about who vetted these people in the first place.
I'm not going to claim that there is no problem (and the biggest problem the country faces is inside the PMO), but the courts have been pretty damned good at blocking the Harper Regime's unconstitutional laws.
Everything from
Federal Court rightly strikes down Harper’s refugee health-care cuts
Supreme Court prostitution ruling forces issue on Harper
Supreme Court strikes down assisted suicide ban
Supreme Court softens Tories' tough-on-crime sentencing law
As for over-seers, we do need more and better ones, but let's not forget Sheila Fraser
and
Kevin Page who was actually appointed by Harper (and I imagine Harper regretted it):
His approach of questioning government estimates and issuing reports that are at odds with official government forecasts has created controversy. "There are former parliamentarians saying I should be held in contempt of Parliament and should be fired, but I’m okay with them saying that. That’s just part of the debate."[9] He has been unapologetic about his desire to give the Parliamentary Budget Office a significant role in informing Parliament and Canadians about government finances, saying "I went to the OECD, and they said the Americans have the best budget office, bar none. Why can't we be the best in five years? If that's overstepping my mandate, then I'm earning my money."[10]
Comment Re:I see a problem here and it isn't Snowden/Germa (Score 1) 337
What hope do they have against actual terrorists with an IQ over 90? Or lone wolves who communicate with exactly nobody?
My assessment of all these laws is that they are there to protect vested interests.
Your assessment is useless. It apparently isn't even infomed by anything so pedestian as Canadian newspapers that have carried many stories on people being arrested for involvement in terrorism.
Thus showing that the current laws are working.
Comment Easy for the Chinese... (Score 0) 31
Easy for the Chinese researchers, since... Chinese Faces All Look Alike.
Bada-bum-tish.
Thank you, try the waitress, tip the salmon, something-something "all week".
(And for the humour-impaired, I certainly don't think "they all look alike", I live with a Hong Konger... Just playing with an old trope.)
Kim Stanley Robinson Says Colonizing Mars Won't Be As Easy As He Thought 228
An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from io9:
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy filled us all with hope that we could terraform Mars in the 21st century, with its plausible description of terraforming processes. But now, in the face of what we've learned about Mars in the past 20 years, he no longer thinks it'll be that easy. Talking to SETI's Blog Picture Science podcast, Robinson explains that his ideas about terraforming Mars, back in the 1990s, were based on three assumptions that have been called into question or disproved:
1) Mars doesn't have any life on it at all. And now, it's looking more likely that there could be bacteria living beneath the surface. 2) There would be enough of the chemical compounds we need to survive. 3) There's nothing poisonous to us on the surface. In fact, the surface is covered with perchlorates, which are highly toxic to humans, and the original Viking mission did not detect these. "It's no longer a simple matter," Robinson says. "It's possible that we could occupy, inhabit and terraform Mars. But it's probably going to take a lot longer than I described in my books."
1) Mars doesn't have any life on it at all. And now, it's looking more likely that there could be bacteria living beneath the surface. 2) There would be enough of the chemical compounds we need to survive. 3) There's nothing poisonous to us on the surface. In fact, the surface is covered with perchlorates, which are highly toxic to humans, and the original Viking mission did not detect these. "It's no longer a simple matter," Robinson says. "It's possible that we could occupy, inhabit and terraform Mars. But it's probably going to take a lot longer than I described in my books."
Comment Re:This is a Canadian story, but (Score 2) 297
You cite the words of a judge
Of course, who else is better suited to demolishing your bullshit allegation of Mann filing suit over "mocking the hockey-stick curve"?
not a scientist, a person more used to evaluating arguments among celebrities than deciding the value of opposing scientific hypotheses.
Shifting the goal posts after an own-goal isn't going to help you.
Scientists accuse each other of manipulating data all the time,
[Citation Needed]
Challenging interpretation of data, methodology, etc. is not the same as allegations of fraud. Anyone with a basic understanding of either science or ethics is aware of this. You seem to lack either.
This is traditionally handled by applying the scientific method to marshal facts and test contending hypotheses. If Mann is confident of having science on his side, why should he be afraid of a lowly editorialist?
He's suing over allegations of fraud. He's done the science, it's been reviewed and corroborated, but the fraud allegations continue. Filing suit is only logical.
And yes, I'm proudly neutral on all scientific questions, meaning that the scientific method, not my political opinions, is the fitting arbiter of truth in this area.
And yet I doubt you pollute cosmology articles with comments about how you're "neutral on the size of the galaxy, age of the sun, properties of the Standard Model", etc.
You people have chosen to contaminate climate research with your political bullying.
You're confused - I'm not a denialist, so it's not "my people" doing that.
Now that this no longer seems to be working, you're rollling in the lawyers. Good luck with that.
The denialist side is finding it untenable to challenge the science and is now attacking the scientists. Good luck with that.
Justice Emily Burke ordered the National Post, Fisher, Terence Corcoran, Peter Foster, and Kevin Libin to pay Weaver $50,000 after finding that the defamation was "serious" and that the "factual foundation to the four articles was distorted or false".
"It offended Dr. Weaver’s character and the defendants refused to publish a retraction," Burke wrote in her ruling. "The libel was widely published by at least one high profile journalist and two others."
Comment Re:This is a Canadian story, but (Score 4, Informative) 297
Michael Mann has sued columnist Mark Steyn for mocking the hockey-stick curve.
Wrong. If that were the case, the judge wouldn't have said the following when denying Steyn's motion to dismiss:
Accusing a scientist of conducting his research fraudulently, manipulating his data to achieve a predetermined or political outcome, or purposefully distorting the scientific truth are factual allegations. They go to the heart of scientific integrity. They can be proven true or false. If false, they are defamatory. If made with actual malice, they are actionable.
For the record, I'm neutral on climate. I trust the scientific method to come up with the truth.
What do you think they've been working on for the past decade and a half (or longer)?
Are you also neutral on quantum mechanics? Gravity? Germ theory? Tell us, oh wise one, what other fields of science do you feel neutral about?
Comment Re:Even Fox gets it right sometimes (Score 1) 645
To me, Fox got it right this time. They put the video up, with big graphic disclaimers of how barbaric it is. Nobody was ever forced to click on it, you don't have to watch it if you don't want to.
That said, Fox posted this likely for no reason other than to draw eyes - and with them, hopefully money - to their website. So much like Ron Paul, Fox News is most often wrong but on rare occasions right for the wrong reasons.
Did Fox News host videos of Americans (or any other Westerners) being beheaded by ISIS?
If not, then why is this different? I suppose because it would draw eyes - and condemnation instead of money.
But I find it hypocritical of them to show the Jordanian's death and not any American's barbaric death when videos of both have been released publicly.
Comment Re:The crime happened to an Indian in India. (Score 1) 277
What standing does she have to sue in the US?
There's probably something in the Terms of Use that the only jurisdiction that would be honoured is that of California.
When I purchase from NewEgg.ca, inside Canada, paid with Canadian dollars, shipment 100% inside Canada, I have to agree to a stipulation that disputes (I forget the details) are to be resolved according to the laws of California, where I assume NewEgg is incorporated.
Yet I don't even have a valid passport to go there should I wish to litigate over some issue.
TL;DR version: Uber's rules say so.
Comment Re:And why are you telling us? (Score 2) 181
from personal experiance(US Army), the US goverment's technical capabilities generally lag far behind their ability to bullshit, which of course is their greatest asset.
The US Government most likely has third rate hackers,
Whats left are political lackies, the government can dress these people up as "the best experts in the world", and we'll all believe it, but their actual skills lack.
If you believe that the US government, in the form of the NSA, is composed of 3rd-rate hackers, you haven't been paying attention at all to the Snowden revelations.
Comment Re:You don't say !! (Score 1) 324
Whatever happened to the great days of shareware?
The people making 'shareware' realized they had rent to pay and kids to feed.
I don't entirely disagree, but it seems that the authors of shareware (or those in that spirit today) have switched to open source model (or mobile apps now).
It's the purveyors of software are the ones making the money here, not the authors.
I don't think Mozilla, for example, makes anything from downloads of Firefox via CNet or SourceForge.
Comment Re: NDP (Score 2) 73
From what I've heard from peers, Jack Layton lost because of rumours floating about regarding his health.
I, for one, hadn't heard the rumours, so I don't think they held many people back from voting for him.
While I'm sure his right hand man would have done well, that unknown scared a lot of people and they decided to jump on the Harper train.
I cannot believe anyone was thinking of voting Layton but switched to Harper for any reason, never mind Layton's health. They were so diametrically opposed in style and substance, after all.
I personally am of the mind that no matter which way you vote, the government will appear incompetent no matter, because people are always out to blame someone. That, and, well, its politics.
This I agree with, but the task is to vote someone in whose mistakes benefit the most people instead of "Ooops, the rich benefited from that mistake. And that one. And this one too."
Just for once it'd be nice if "the little guy" was the beneficiary of a government screw-up.
