Measles is considered pretty communicable, at a rate of 1.2.

Ebola is a 1.7.

No, because there is a difference between looking for the perfect castle and realizing that maybe having a wall isn't so stupid and closing the door and night isn't a bad idea, either.

Making brute force attacks difficult is not a question of perfect code. It's a question of not allowing unlimited tries at unlimited speed (online) or not storing unsalted password hashes (offline). It's not a matter of protecting your server from compromise. A serious defense strategy always includes the assumption that several layers of your protection fail and you should still not suffer a total defeat.

You see, this is the point. Whether or not they are is not a matter of hope like rain and sunshine. It's something you actively control.

No, but there are good and stupid solutions, and it's time we stop using the stupid ones. It's a feature of this anarchy we love so much, because if software was a car... well, at least in the western world you can't legally sell a car without brakes anymore.

Correct on the first part, absolute rubbish on the 2nd. SJWs are usually not feminine, or even pro feminist. The militant Left/Liberals which usually fit the definition of SJW tend to be predominantly male. White males to be more precise. Since an incorrect premise tends to lead to an incorrect conclusion, I didn't bother with the rest of what you said.

The question in the case of the baby + crib incident, numerous police officers shooting unarmed suspects, police shooting pet dogs, etc.. is whether or not the force used was required. This question used to be asked all the time, but today gets completely ignored..

Not that long ago if a house seemed risky for officers or the public they did not dress up like Navy Seals and Rambo up the house. They waited outside, used surveillance, and caught criminals when it was the most opportunistic and safest for EVERYONE! Today, the only people who has their safety discussed is that of the Law enforcement agents. Which is completely contrary to what a Law enforcement officer's job is supposed to be, which is "Protect and Server the Public".

Yeah, the cop _probably_ didn't intend to harm an infant but you don't know that for sure. At the same time, the officers had no requirement to bust into the house in the first place. Nobody was in eminent danger if the police department did not bust down the door.

"EU officials hope the agreement will encourage the U.S. and China to take a more aggressive stance on fighting climate change."
The US?

Would that be the same United States that met the original Kyoto reduction targets without trying?

IMHO, this is largely due to the excessive amount of "rote" work required for Government mandated testing. This teaches people to take tests, not how to think. Numerous professional educators believe the same thing.

The rudimentary elements of Logic are already part of math, but this is measurable logic. Abstract logic dealing with language and politics is not the same thing, but can be learned much easier with a basic understanding of rudimentary math logic. Why on Earth would you wait until Engineering level classes to begin teaching abstract Logic, when it can be taught much sooner?

Absolutely false, you just made this up. Socrates did not believe in writing Philosophy, but his student Plato sure as hell did. As did Aristotle, and just about every other Philosopher that came after. Your claim of "trouble with some of the problems" is way too generic as written, therefor wrong.

I agree when dealing with the measurable, but absolutely false when dealing with the abstract. Using Logic on the abstract means that you have to measure motives. How to build a bridge versus Why to build a bridge for example. Both the "How" and "Why" certainly use logic, but not the same logic.

However, if we assume that the average spent amount on the purchase of this year's Surface Pro 3 was around $1000, then we have less than 1 million units sold, which isn't that impressive, but it's a good start.

On what planet is selling a million units at about $1,000/ea not "impressive" or just a "good start"?

Plato started "The Academy", so your pedantry is not quite correct. You would also be able to put possessives on the Oracles of Delphi, and at least half a dozen Sophists mentioned by Plato. I do get your point however, and made a grammatical error which should have been "Ancient Greeks". Wholly crap, I'm human!

Fair point!

The word "God" is _in_ the Declaration of Independence, and so is the word "Creator" (Read the first 2 paragraphs). As with the person I responded to, you are not even attempting to look at facts. The words are not "religious rhetoric" when used as we see in both the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, because there is absolutely no associating theology. Paraphrased, they simply state ~all people are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights~. If you substitute Creator with your own vision, such as Jewish God or Xenu, that is _your_ bias and certainly not written or even implied.

Theophobia is an unreasonable fear of Religion. Showing anxiety over the word "God" or "Creator" and claiming that the words alone are indoctrinating or theological is a good demonstration of a person with a phobia.

Which opens the door to DOS attacks on target accounts, but there are several smart ways to work around that (send an unlock link to the e-mail address for that user, for example).

There are two kinds of security people in the business world. Those with a real interest in advancing the field and making computing more secure, and those working for large consulting and IT "Security" companies. I am exaggerating some, of course, and there are great people in those companies as well, but unfortunately the business concept of too many of them is based on solving problems in such ways that you can sell the solution to many other customers, not on finding a solution that takes care of the actual problem.

It's the same with consulting companies and the insource/outsourcing cycles. There are good arguments for both of them, but if you've watched the business world for a decade or two you understand that they are hyped in cycles so the same consultants who sold outsourcing to a company last period can sell insourcing to the same company next period or after the next CTO change.

Me and other security experts have been saying such things for years.

Basically, our password handling systems and policies are completely broken. It's not just what xkcd pointed out - it's worse. Those policies are based on making brute-force attacks more difficult. But to sum up a complex topic in a soundbite: If your system allows for brute-force attacks, your system is fatally broken.

The Classical education system is not going to save money on it's own, it's simply a different method of introducing subjects and teaching. Overlapping subjects, such as Trigonometry and Music theory are taught simultaneously, so that people can see and hear what the Trig shows on paper. Algebra is taught with Algebra based Physics, English is taught with Rhetoric and Debate, Logic is taught with History, Sociology, Current/World Events, and classical Philosophy.

Your current budget woes may be a symptom of the current federally mandated education system. How many people are required to handle all of the federally mandated testing at all of the federally mandated times? (most schools are testing 4 times a year, and preparations are a large portion of the in-between time).

Your school district must abide by Federal rules in order to get any money. This means that you can not change your core method of education without the Federal Government changing theirs. Even if you went to a classical system, you would still be required to spend the money and time for the federally mandated testing. Most schools today are spending at least 2 months a year just on this testing, so losing 2 months of educating.

As to saving money.. How much money is being spent on school board members? If they cost money why not make them voluntary positions? How much money on duplicate or unnecessary bureaucracy and redundant positions? Those are usually the big things to target, in addition to checking for fraud and waste which is pretty common in any bureaucracy.

The problem with most school budgets is not a local problem, but the federal mandates. Petition the Feds to move the requirement to 1 test per year, or 1 test every other year. Have your school start tracking the material required for this testing separately so that you can make your point very clearly. Spread that information to other schools and have them do the same.

Critical thinking is not simply skepticism, or self skepticism. Critical thinking is the ability to look at an issue, minimize the issue to it's basic level(s), remove all of the biases and bad logic, and finally determine whether the issue is valid. (Issue in this case may be someone's proposed solution, which first requires determining the validity of the "problem"). Validity can be a probability as well as a real number, since Logic deals with abstract information as often as the measurable.

I would agree that part of that process is skepticism, because you have to have motivation to question someone's statements and/or allegations. I'd further agree that it's partially self skepticism, because a good portion of learning how to critically think is to be able to question your own beliefs and biases so that you can remove them from the issue you are attempting to resolve. The latter is also the most difficult and rare.

The core of critical thinking is Logic. Logic can be learned since it has rules just like complex math or physics, and symbolic Logic is math like in construction and you solve the problems for validity. Understanding logic (good and bad) is the core of what critical thinking is. If you don't understand why circular logic is faulty you may decide to use it, or be duped by someone using it because it can sound plausible in some scenarios. I'm sure that most people on Slashdot are familiar with a base rate fallacy as well. As to rhetoric, this is all language tactics. Rhetoric has been taught since the times of Ancient Greeks. Knowing how to stand up a straw man can be used to divert your main topic, or I can poison the well if I know your material. The use of rhetoric is far more visible in politics, but does show itself in science often enough.

Sagan's BS detector was simply an understanding of rhetoric and logic, with a single name that the middle class would find appealing.