Just curious here. Does voting a submission up or down have any effect on whether it's accepted? It seems some stories appear on the front page as soon as they're submitted, others languish for days. Gives the impression the editors are selecting stories based on some agenda other than what slashdot readers want to see.

Land it on Mars and use the mylar sail to cover a cave entrance. A great habitat would be waiting for the colonists. Sure, there are a couple of techincal challanges with either idea - but that can be worked out in the software.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers. It's appropriate for high schools and colleges to be addressing this problem.

That only works once. You get yours (maybe), nobody else will have the opportunity to get anything. In this case it appears the terminated employees will get less than they would have if they had compromised rather than taking down the company.

Sure looks like ridicule to me. And people who took out mortgages they had no chance of repaying did indeed get bailed out.

Actually, NASA had a "file system full" problem on one of the Mars rovers, almost exactly the same problem that Lightsail has. Fortunately they were able to fix it remotely.

People should understand what software is and have an idea how to write it. But on the list of things to teach an 11 year old it's not near the top.

The next time you read yet another news article comparing the rate of anything across different countries. It doesn't matter what the rate is; infant mortality, math proficiency, whatever. They're all reported by the various countries and the numbers are whatever the country wants to report.

Under previous administrations it was considered a "Lifeline" for those who had no other alternative. Obama didn't change the assistance program itself, but he greatly expanded the number of people who can get a free cell phone. For that reason it became known as the Obamaphone and for that same reason the program is far bigger and more costly that was was under previous administrations.

Yea, just keep breeding here on Earth and shoot the occasional capsule full of people off into space.

Do you have any clue what it would take to keep up with a population increasing by billions of people? Do you want me to Godwin this thread?

Teach kids how to read, how to reason, how to make music, how to speak a second language. Expose them to various fields of science such as astronomy and oceanography. Coding is a tool they can pick up later.

I was told the same thing once by someone who ate dandelion roots: "they taste really bitter, but they're so good for you". Presumably because they taste awful, I wouldn't know.