Comment Re:ill-informed nonsense (Score 2, Interesting) 278
It was Aloha Airlines flight 243, not Hawaiian. My mother fortunately missed flying on that airplane by taking an earlier flight.
Comment Re:If women are so smart . . . (Score 1) 928
It's not just the South. My female (blond) medical school classmates at Michigan State told me they would routinely say they were majoring in Hotel/Restaurant Management when bar hopping. Most men (at least those who go bar hopping on Grand River Ave) are fearful of attractive, smart women. I'm lucky to have married someone smarter than me... so I never understood that. My mother was very smart though, and that may make a difference. Hopefully, my boys will find someone smart like their mother.
Comment Re:So what if you own one of these machines? (Score 3, Insightful) 640
I hereby declare Psystar to be a reverse trojan horse. Apple created Psystar so they could sue themselves and once and for all crush any thoughts companies might have of trying to produce generic Apple-compatible platforms for OSX.
this should be modded "insightful"
Comment Pulse Smart Pen (Score 1) 823
livescribe.com sells the Pulse Smart Pen. It can also record the lecture while transcribing your handwriting. the best thing however, is to get last years notes, and bring it with you. then you can read along. professors usually have the same script year after year.
Comment Re:The Augustine report ? (Score 3, Funny) 144
Well, slashdot has to pay the bills too, ya know.
Comment Re:Ocean orienting (Score 1) 520
I agree. My wife has me driving whenever I go home to Honolulu (she's from Michigan). However, she knows the direction to every shopping center/mall within 30 miles of my parents house, and routinely goes on her own.
Comment Re:Follow the Sony example (Score 1) 301
Does anyone remember the Microsoft store at the Metreon? It was set up like those temporary holiday sausage stores you see in the mall around christmas time. I couldn't figure it out then either (Microsoft, not the summer sausages)
In Round 2, Jammie Thomas Jury Awards RIAA $1,920,000 793
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Well the price went up from $9250 per song file to $80,000 per song file, as the jury awarded the RIAA statutory damages of $1,920,000.00 for infringement of 24 MP3s, in Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset. In this trial, although the defendant had an expert witness of her own, she never called him to testify, and her attorneys never challenged the technical evidence offered by the RIAA's MediaSentry and Doug Jacobson. Also, neither the special verdict form nor the jury instructions spelled out what the elements of a 'distribution' are, or what needed to be established by the plaintiffs in order to recover statutory — as opposed to actual — damages. No doubt there will now have to be a third trial, and no doubt the unreasonableness of the verdict will lend support to those arguing that the RIAA's statutory damages theory is unconstitutional." Update: 06/19 01:39 GMT by T : Lots more detail at Ars Technica, too.
Broke Counties Turn Failing Roads To Gravel 717
To save money, more than 20 Michigan counties have decided to turn deteriorating paved roads back to gravel. Montcalm County estimates that repaving a road costs more than $100,000 a mile. Grinding the same mile of road up and turning it into gravel costs $10,000. At least 50 miles of road have been reverted to gravel in Michigan the past three years. I can't wait until we revert back to whale oil lighting and can finally be rid of this electricity fad.
Submission + - Fortieth Anniversary of Snoopy's Flight to Moon
Hugh Pickens writes: "Snoopy, the irreverent dog from the "Peanuts" comic strip, took time from his World War I dogfights as a world-famous flying ace to become a world-famous astronaut for NASA's Apollo 10 mission that arrived at the moon on May 21, 1969 when the Snoopy lunar module and the Charlie Brown command module entered lunar orbit paving the way for Apollo 11 to land men on the moon. "It went down in his life as one of the all-time highlights of his career," said Craig Schulz, son of Charles Schulz, the famed American comic strip writer who died in 2000. Schulz was reportedly thrilled when NASA contacted him prior to the 1969 mission, and approved the request despite "what-if" remarks from friends who worried about a possible mission disaster. "His comment was that if the astronauts could risk their lives, he could risk his characters," said the younger Schulz. Snoopy's association with NASA dates to the Apollo 1 fire which killed three astronauts in 1967. "NASA decided that they needed to come up with a safety program and wanted a mascot similar to Smokey the Bear," Schulz said. The beagle now has a 5-foot-tall statue at Florida's Kennedy Space Center and the Silver Snoopy Award presented to awardees who contribute to the success and safety of spaceflight operations. As for the Snoopy lunar module, it's still flying in space — the only Apollo module to ever get launched into a sun orbit."
YouTube Video Sends Guatemala Into Crisis 405
Several have sent word that a YouTube video of recently assassinated lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg has sent Guatemala into a tailspin. The video of Rosenberg claims that if you are watching, he has been murdered by President Alvaro Colom with help from presidential secretary Gustavo Alejos. "The video spread across the Internet after family members handed it out during Rosenberg's funeral on Monday. In the 18-minute tape, a seemingly calm Rosenberg, sitting behind a desk and microphone, alleges that Colom, the First Lady and two associates were involved in murder, corruption and money laundering. The group, he says, filtered public funds through a state-owned bank for personal gain and to finance drug traffickers. Rosenberg then claims that after Khalil Musa, a prominent businessman and bank board member, had learned of the Coloms' scheme, Musa and his daughter were shot to death in front of a shopping center in April. Rosenberg says the President signed off on the killings."
Chimp Found Plotting Against Zoo Guests 435
rjshirts writes "In further proof that Planet of the Apes is coming to pass, researchers in Stockholm, Sweden have proof that primates can plan ahead.
From the article:
'Santino the chimpanzee's anti-social behavior stunned both visitors and keepers at the Furuvik Zoo but fascinated researchers because it was so carefully prepared.
According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the zoo opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his enclosure. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a "hailstorm" of rocks against visitors, the study said.'"
Penny Arcade Honored By Washington State 31
Dutch Gun writes "Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (Tycho and Gabe) of Penny Arcade have been honored by the Washington State legislature with a resolution. The bill praises their charity work (PDF) with Child's Play, for attracting tourist dollars by starting the Penny Arcade Expo, which has grown to become the largest video game exhibition in the country, providing student scholarships, and for their leadership role within the computer gaming community. Washington State is home to at least 45 game development companies, including such notable names as Nintendo of America, Microsoft, Bungie, Valve, ArenaNet, PopCap, Gas Powered Games, Monolith, Zipper Interactive, Snowblind Studios, and more. This is a marked departure from the typical news involving governments and gaming. One could see the courtship of the computer gaming industry by the State of Washington as a shrewd political move, given the current tough economic times and the seeming resistance of the entertainment industry to recessions. Or, perhaps a bit less cynically, this might just be a sign that gaming has reached a critical threshold of mainstream normalcy."
Comment Re:Keep the camera opposite the screen (Score 1) 268
thanks for the insight. this would explain my kids behavior with their grandparents. we use iChat, but the kids hate teleconferencing unless they are showing off cool background effects. my parents enjoy seeing the kids goof off anyway, so it works out in the end.
Comment Re:Missing option: (Score 3, Funny) 887
the Slashdot guys grew up and live in Michigan. I think GM made it illegal to walk in the 1940's.
