Comment: Long Story Short (Score 5, Informative) 358
iOS crashes more than Android (for those who don't feel like trawling through the (not brilliantly formatted) article.
Comment: Re:Uhh, goats? (Score 3, Informative) 274
I mean, Elephants are f***ing awesome and all, big, giant things that knock over trees when they get mad, but goats are well proven to eat grass and other things (like briers) that most animals won't touch. They handle dry, arid climates well, and provide other useful things like, Milk, Cheese, Meat, and Pelts. If you pick angora goats you get fancy wool from them as well.
Been there, done that they went feral : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_goats_in_Australia. Though some farmers to make a fair living off mustering the ferals and then selling them for pelts and meat.
Comment: Re:Act of War (Score 4, Informative) 263
Considering how small their population is (~10M IIRC), that must not be very much oil.
Almost 23M (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Australia), and apparently we use 946,300 barrels per day (http://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=91) making us the 19th highest user in the world.
Comment: Re:Ah, America! (Score 1) 562
It's probably a wash, actually. Credit card charges will probably cost them as much as mailing that paper, which would be paid by check instead of credit card, usually.
Not necessarily - I work for a fairly large org (9000+ employees), and our bank charges us enough to deposit cheques that for payments under ~$100 it's actually cheaper to accept the credit card charge.
Comment: Re:Oh crap - I know what's coming next (Score 1) 65
Would you like some toast?
Comment: Welcome to Australia (Score 2) 1797
Student Loans should include two things: 1. Fixed low-rate loan (2-3% even for private loans) 2. Allowed to be paid with pre-tax income (like money put towards retirement etc)
That's exactly the system we have in Australia - if you request it, the Government pays for your tuition (to a set life-time limit, to stop abuse of the system), and you pay it back as part of your tax once you earn above the designated threshold. The interest rate is set at CPI, and you get a 10% discount if you pay back extra money (extra info here if anyone's interested).
It's a system that works fairly well - you end up with a highly-educated populace (good for the economy), and no-one goes broke trying to get there.
Comment: Consider the Health Implications (Score 2) 294
Apart from the political / legal / social implications of this, has anyone considered the health problems it might cause?
Consider this: Little Johnny has the flu, and wipes his nose with his finger (hey, he's a kid, they do gross things). He then puts his finger on the scanner. Little Suzy comes along after him, puts her finger on the scanner, and picks up a nice little viral present left behind by Johnny (being a kid she also doesn't think to wash her hands afterward).
Repeat for 100+ kids, and the viral / bacterial load on the scanner would be a pathologists dream.
The Stanford prisoner experiment - 40 years on-> 1
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by
cheros
cheros writes "It's now 40 years ago that the Stanford prisoner experiment went ugly so quickly it had to be aborted. Stanford has an interesting piece called The Menace Within that looks back on this momentous psychological experiment.
I think we can still learn from this — plenty of live examples around.."
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I think we can still learn from this — plenty of live examples around.."
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E.U. Proposal: Give Farming Funds to Science->
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by
smitty777
smitty777 writes "There is a proposal in the EU budget which would provide a 45% increase in technology and innovation spending for the 2014-2020 time period. Interestingly,some of the increase from $79 B to $114B would come from the controversial farm subsides program, the Common Agricultural Policy. The article states that the proposal will focus on "excellence in science, meeting 'grand challenges' such as food security, and improving competitiveness.", with a special focus on "healthy aging". While some scientists and observers feel optimistic that the proposal will pass, one stated that "it is extremely unlikely that the member states will agree to anything exceeding this, so we should regard it as a ceiling" on the eventual research budget."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Huge Attack Hits PNNL, Forces Lab Off the Web->
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by
Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes "An attack against the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has forced the lab to shut off access to the Internet, and the lab's external Web site also is inaccessible right now. The attack on the lab, which conducts national security and cybersecurity research among other things, is the latest in a series of such attacks against research facilities.
The attack has been ongoing for some time, and officials have severed all incoming anf outgoing Web traffic, including email. Security experts say the attack could be part of a larger operation against ESnet, the Department of Energy's high-speed network that connects more than 40 research facilities in the US."
Link to Original Source
The attack has been ongoing for some time, and officials have severed all incoming anf outgoing Web traffic, including email. Security experts say the attack could be part of a larger operation against ESnet, the Department of Energy's high-speed network that connects more than 40 research facilities in the US."
Link to Original Source