Comment Re:If you can learn to put a beer down while drivi (Score 1) 184
Actually some of the worst are Mercedes drivers. They say the car comes with built in right of way!
Comment Re:If you can learn to put a beer down while drivi (Score 1) 184
Germans are notorious tailgaters even at 140mph. If you're in the left lane in an unlimited zone and you aren't doing more than the guy behind you, expect to get the headlight flash (oh hi Mr. Porsche @ 190mph!). Motorcyclists split lanes even when traffic is flowing at 60mph. The police here just don't have the kind of manpower required to regulate drivers like you imply. Lots of speed cameras (fixed and temporary) though!
Remote ATM Attack Uses SMS To Dispense Cash 150
judgecorp (778838) writes "A newly discovered malware attack uses a smartphone connected to the computer that manages an ATM, and then sends an SMS message to instruct it to dispense cash. The attack was reported by Symantec, and builds on a previous piece of malware called Backdoor.Ploutus. It is being used in actual attacks, and Symantec has demonstrated it with an ATM in its labs, though it is not revealing the brand of the vulnerable machines."
Submission + - Obama to allow ALL spy agencies scour Americans' finances (reuters.com) 2
KrisJon writes: "The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters. Financial institutions that operate in the United States are required by law to file reports of "suspicious customer activity." A move like the FinCEN proposal "raises concerns as to whether people could find their information in a file as a potential terrorist suspect without having the appropriate predicate for that and find themselves potentially falsely accused," said Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior counsel for the Rule of Law Program at the Constitution Project, a non-profit watchdog group."
Submission + - Why freeloaders are essential to FOSS project success (outercurve.org)
dp619 writes: Outercurve Foundation technical director Stephen Walli has written a blog post arguing that attracting users is fundamental to the ability of open source projects to recruit "new blood" and contributors who are willing to code. "So in the end, it's all about freeloaders, but from the perspective that you want as many as possible. That means you're “doing it right” in developing a broad base of users by making their experience easy, making it easy for them to contribute, and ultimately to create an ecosystem that continues to sustain itself," he wrote.
Comment Re:teachers' unions (Score 1) 311
Our per capita spending is very much at the high end of the spectrum:
http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/publication/k-12-education-spending-pdf_0.pdf
And this spending has doubled since 1970:
http://www.heritage.org/static/reportimages/8944CCA9757394F0CCE1821F36C34E6E.gif
I don't think throwing more money at the problem is a solution.
Comment Re:Hmmm... (Score 1) 869
It was done in July of last year:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/07/bush-as-joker.html
Comment Re:Peer Review (Score 1) 1322
The resounding success of most parents when they choose to home-school their kids makes me think they can make very good judgments about the quality of their kids' education.
Military Enlists Open Source Community 131
jmwci1 writes "The US Defense Department is enlisting an open source approach to software development — an about-face for such a historically top-down organization. In recent weeks, the military has launched a collaborative platform called Forge.mil for its developers to share software, systems components and network services. The agency also signed an agreement with the Open Source Software Institute to allow 50 internally developed workforce management applications to be licensed to other government agencies, universities and companies."
Quantum Mechanics Involved In Photosynthesis 137
Kristina at Science News writes "We all learn about photosynthesis in school: sunlight in, plant food out. Not well understood is how this process achieves its initial and uniquely high efficiency in capturing the energy of a photon. Quantum mechanics may be at work in the electron transfer process inside chloroplast, giving electrons the chance to consider many paths at once before choosing the best one."
Air Force One Flyby Causes Brief Panic In NYC 898
pdclarry writes "A Boeing 747 that serves as an Air Force One backup and two F-16 fighters escorting it caused a brief panic among office workers at the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan this morning, as large numbers evacuated the buildings. The incident was also spurred evacuations in Jersey City across the Hudson River from Manhattan."
Comment WANem would have been better (Score 1) 110
Comment Old behavior still in place (Score 1) 250
Maybe I missed the effective date for this policy change, but they just sent out two new mailers today (24 March) and I still have the two in-store exchange movies as well.
Comment I got notice. (Score 1) 250
I am a subscriber and they notified me. Perhaps the OP's notice got tossed by the spam filter.
Comment Re:And Futurama (Score 1) 753
Well maybe the parent was actually referring to the 5th harmonic of a high 12Hz alpha wave! But then a more little research would have shown that alpha waves are diminished with open eyes. Sorry Mr. Parent, I tried.
