Comment Re:I'll auto-Godwin myself (Score 1) 385
Replying to remove accidental moderation...
Comment Re:RFID = The Mark of Beast? (Score 1) 743
Actually, it's 6^6^6 = 2.659 Ã-- 10^36305
There was a well known book written on the subject.
Comment Candy Corn? Bleh! (Score 1) 267
Candy corn isn't dead last?! Could someone explain the popularity of what is basically sugar, corn syrup, and wax?
Comment Re:Sting operation (Score 1) 72
Light Bulb Ban Produces Hoarding In EU, FUD In U.S. 1080
Lucas123 writes "The very thought of losing that pear-shaped giver of warm, yellow light drove Europeans to hoard Edison's invention [Note: Or possibly Joseph Swan's invention; HT to eldavojohn.] as the EU's Sept. 1 ban on incandescent light bulbs approached. China's ban on incandescent lamps starts Oct. 1. And, in the U.S., the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 effectively began banning the 100W bulb this year and will ban the most popular bulbs — the 75W, 60W and 40W screw-in incandescent bulbs --over the next two years. The end standard requires bulbs to use 65% less energy by 2020. But Republicans in Congress continue to fight the ban by hamstringing the energy efficiency standards through appropriations legislation, cutting off funds for the enforcement of the light bulb ban."
Is the Can Worse Than the Soda? 388
DevotedSkeptic sends this excerpt about research that found a correlation between the use of a common food-packaging chemical and obesity rates. "Since the 1960s, manufacturers have widely used the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) in plastics and food packaging. Only recently, though, have scientists begun thoroughly looking into how the compound might affect human health—and what they've found has been a cause for concern. Starting in 2006, a series of studies, mostly in mice, indicated that the chemical might act as an endocrine disruptor (by mimicking the hormone estrogen), cause problems during development and potentially affect the reproductive system, reducing fertility. After a 2010 Food and Drug Administration report warned that the compound could pose an especially hazardous risk for fetuses, infants and young children, BPA-free water bottles and food containers started flying off the shelves. In July, the FDA banned the use of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups, but the chemical is still present in aluminum cans, containers of baby formula and other packaging materials. Now comes another piece of data on a potential risk from BPA but in an area of health in which it has largely been overlooked: obesity. A study by researchers from New York University, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at a sample of nearly 3,000 children and teens across the country and found a 'significant' link between the amount of BPA in their urine and the prevalence of obesity."
Comment National Science Olympiad (Score 3, Informative) 263
The National Science Olympiad gets a good chunk of my charitable donations. They do a lot to promote science education and I had a great time competing when I was in high school.
Comment Oops! (Score 1) 214
Posting to undo accidental moderation. It was slightly trollish, but I'd meant to mod Funny.
Comment Re:Still Wrong (Score 1) 926
In fact, every major famine in the 20th Century was caused NOT by major crop failures, but by deliberate political policy or the effects of war.
Was the Dust Bowl not a 'major famine'...?
Comment Re:Psychohistory (Score 1) 397
Oh, someone came up with a solution to *that* problem...
Comment Re:Big Content Requirement? (Score 1) 602
Brilliant! Count me in.
Comment Re:Why post AC? (Score 1) 429
Who knows? A small list could include current or potential employers, advertisers/profilers, law enforcement, stalkers, and anyone else who could possibly be interested in your for the rest of your life. Perhaps a poster will want to run for public office in 30 years, only to have something they wrote come back to haunt them. Just look at what happens during congressional vetting of presidential appointees now, and imagine how bad it will be when these people come from a generation where much of their correspondence is available through either public research or rubber-stamped warrants...
Comment Re:Why post AC? (Score 1) 429
I'd imagine more people are posting AC because the internet is becoming a less friendly place. If you use the same handle for long enough in enough places then it becomes easier and easier to track your username back to your RL identity. With everything on the internet being logged and mined in more and more ways I can completely understand the desire to not be subjected to a permanent archive of your comments that could be used against you at some point in the future.
Comment Re:How ingenious (Score 2, Funny) 287
Mods occasionally rate a funny post as something else to boost that person's karma rating, since Funny doesn't give a karma boost.
...or at least that's how it used to work, something might have been tweaked in the moderation system since that was true.
...or at least that's how it used to work, something might have been tweaked in the moderation system since that was true.
Comment Re:Hopefully... (Score 1) 612
Sometimes the police are the rapists, or the rapist is a prominent member of the community who targets a vulnerable person and makes them think that nobody would ever believe them if they spoke out. Many victims are not comfortable speaking out until months or years after the attack, when some of the details may have faded from memory and could make their testimony difficult to use in court when a jury is expecting CSI like details. If the rape victim does decide to testify and makes it through all of the hurdles of convincing a prosecutor to press charges, then they have to deal with a defense attorney who will do everything possible to slander his or her character and convince the jury that the sex was consensual and that 'it was all just a misunderstanding'. If anything, "nightmare" is an understatement.
