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Comment Re:Power Creep Unless Proven Otherwise (Score 1) 228

No you couldn't, because that is not the kind of "power" they are talking about. They are talking about power over the story itself.

Katherine focused on seven different criteria, and ranked each on a scale from one to five. Was a woman on the cover? How did the female characters look? Did women in the comic book talk to each other about important issues? Was the storyline about a woman? Were women in positions of power? Did they make their own decisions? Did they have jobs?

If you did the exact same study with Superman, you'd certainly not find his "story power" has been increasing. In the early comics he was the sole hero, so he'd be getting perfect scores for all those.

Comment Re:Bottom Rising (Score 2) 228

TFA is talking about power in the story itself (as in the Bechdel test), not the badassness of their superpowers.

Katherine focused on seven different criteria, and ranked each on a scale from one to five. Was a woman on the cover? How did the female characters look? Did women in the comic book talk to each other about important issues? Was the storyline about a woman? Were women in positions of power? Did they make their own decisions? Did they have jobs?

Not that what you are talking about wouldn't be a legitimate and interesting study topic as well. It just isn't what was being studied here.

Comment Re:The Author Never Owned a Car (Score 1) 287

The thing that's important about a car isn't the in car entertainment system. It's the wheels and the engine and the bits in between that let me get to where I need to go. I need that to last a decade or more.

Then you don't matter. Not to the automakers. You'll buy a car (probably not even new from the dealer) about 4 times in your lifetime, if you chose wisely and don't get in wrecks.The automakers will make almost no money off of you. I'm the same way. Mostly I only buy late-model used cars, and try to drive them until everything starts to fall apart at once like the Bluesmobile.

The people who matter are people like my dad, who has bought or leased a new car every 2 years or less as far back as I can remember. The first thing he asks me about any car I buy, going back to he 80's, is how good the stereo is. So yeah, the "car entertainment system" sells cars.

Comment Re:Went to classical myself (Score 1) 361

I think older music (including classical) benefits from a survivor bias: the bad stuff has been forgotten, leaving only the good stuff.

Any time you hear someone wax nostalgic for 70's or early 80's music, I guarantee you that's the case. I was listening then, and you have simply no concept of how much crap I had to sit through in order to hear the occasional great Led Zeppelin or Rush song. There was a time when I was literally (and I do mean literally) getting rickrolled daily. That was an actual chart-topping song in the 80's. Think for a second about what that says about its competition.

Comment Re:Hardware != Open Source (Score 1) 75

Open source as a development model promotes a universal access via a free license to a product's design or blueprint

The term Open Source was invented to describe software licenses in the face of copyright law. Hardware in general is "protected" by patents, not by copyright. Those are two completely different mechanisms, and talking about them like they are somehow the same makes no sense at all.

Comment Hardware != Open Source (Score 0) 75

There's a really annoying trend lately of people completely misusing the term "Open Source". By definition, for something to be "Open Source", there must be some source code somewhere in it (and term only applies to that part). Calling a pure hardware system "open source" makes no sense whatsoever.

The word "open" works just fine there all by itself. There is no need to embellish it with the nonsensical "source".

Comment Re:Dishonest headlines as usual (Score 1) 170

Probably the case. But as I told another poster, it would be even smarter to keep the math career as active as possible in the meantime, as that gets the first few years of lowest pay and prestige out of the way, and gives him that extra 3-5 years at the high-paying end of the career as gravy.

Comment Re:Dishonest headlines as usual (Score 1) 170

You are missing (or conveniently ignoring) the part where I said he'd be lucky to keep at it that long. In point of fact, the *average* NFL career is a smidge over 3 years. A bit more for players who are good enough to make active rosters, less for players who aren't kickers or QB's. There are a lot of variables. As there are with salary.

The point here is that NFL careers aren't that long, and the pay for people who aren't superstars only makes up for that if the alternative is something like a service/menial job. If the alternative is getting a jump of that many years on the ground floor of a high-paying career, in many situations it would be way smarter to take the longer career. Particularly if it is something you love doing (which seems the case here). If he's going to try to be a mathematician after sports "retirement" anyway, the sensible thing is to keep that career as serious as possible in the meantime.

Comment Re:How is killing him Unislamic? (Score 1) 284

Could some Islamic scholar chime in to describe, how such an attack (as well as...) is not in perfect conformance with Koran?

No, pointing fingers at other religions will not answer the question and will be ignored.

I'll agree with this statement the day you can't use The Bible or the Torah in your first sentence and justify the exact same attacks.

Comment Re:Lies! Lies! All lies! (Score 1) 284

Islam is the religion of peace! Well, except for a few radicals, maybe 2 or 3 percent, which would only make about a million radicals. And, maybe except for their supporters, maybe 20 percent or so, which would make about 200 million. Other than that, it's mostly moderates, who won't actually go out and jihad, but they'll cheer the jihadists on

A lot of this is fair, but the same goes for any ideology. You could say the same for Christianity. You could say the same for Protestantism, which kept central Europe awash in blood for hundreds of years after its introduction. You could say the same for political philosophies. The Spanish Civil war, and to a large extent WWII were fought over Republicanism vs. Authoritarianism, and millions slaughtered each other in the most gruesome ways imaginable.

Yet nobody runs about decrying philosophy in general. That would be stupid. The problem is humans naturally like to think in us-vs-them terms, and like to kill "them" (chimps go to war too. It sucks, but its natural). Religion is just an excuse. Strike it down, and another will be used.

Comment Re:Dishonest headlines as usual (Score 1) 170

Perhaps. The league minimum is about half a mil a year. Good money by any standard. However, that's only about 4x what an average math PhD can pull down in a year. Compare that with the fact that an NFL linesman career is going to be over in 10 years if you are really lucky, while a mathematician can work until either they drop or age-related dementia sets in, and it really isn't so cut-and-dried. At the absolute least, he's smart to be trying to do both so he isn't starting from base salary(/reputation) on the math thing when forced to retire from football.

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