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+ - College Textbook Recommendation for Web Dev Class?->

Submitted by PHPNerd
PHPNerd writes "I'm a college computer science professor. Next semester I'll be teaching Web Development 2. Due to how quickly the web is changing, every year I have to find a new book (though some years I don't even use one). Last year I used HTML5 For Web Designers by the good people at A List Apart. I used it because it's short, easy to understand, and covers essential pieces of HTML5. Any suggestions on good textbooks or web resources focusing on bleeding-edge HTML5 and CSS3?"
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Earth

+ - Coral Reefs Could Be Decimated by 2100->

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes "Nearly every coral reef could be dying by 2100 if current carbon dioxide emission trends continue, according to a new review of major climate models from around the world. The only way to maintain the current chemical environment in which reefs now live, the study suggests, would be to deeply cut emissions as soon as possible. It may even become necessary to actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, say with massive tree-planting efforts or machines."
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Comment: This article commits the same error (Score 2) 1128

by PHPNerd (#39509595) Attached to: Conservatives' Trust In Science Has Fallen Dramatically Since Mid-1970s
This study laments that conservatives reject liberal culture and turn it into an "us" vs "them" mentality. However, this is exactly what this study is saying on the liberal side, e.g. Those conservatives don't believe in science. This conveniently lumps them all into a science-hating group and furthers the "us" vs "them" rhetoric. The comments so far on this page show a circle-jerk consisting of "Only stupid people don't believe in science!" in which they lap this study up as further proof that all conservatives are religiously extreme and don't believe in science. It's sad that the very article which points out the vitriolic conservative rhetoric against science (a truly lamentable thing) only furthers the rhetoric from the other side.

+ - US Schools Using Saudi-funded Textbooks->

Submitted by PHPNerd
PHPNerd writes "Tired of fundamental Christians revising the textbooks your children use? Well how about Arab Muslims funding textbooks used in American schools? These textbooks purport Muslims discovered America and that there was no ancient state of Israel, something that flies in the face of modern history and archaeology. The textbooks go farther, however, portraying America negatively and making it empirical fact that the Koran was revealed to Muhammad. How could this happen? Apparently Saudi Arabia has been giving millions in grants to some of America's top universities (Harvard, George Washington, etc) to push the textbooks that back their warped view of history."
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Comment: Climate Change Argument Template UPDATED EDITION! (Score 1) 776

by PHPNerd (#37900770) Attached to: Climate Change Skeptic Results Released Today
A quick template for replying to anyone who disagrees with you in a climate change discussion:

Paragraph one, "You are a moron!": Slander the person you are replying to (e.g. "wing-nut", "idiot", "retard", "moron", etc. Get creative!). Then call them a "denier" so that it seems like they're opposing something like evolution and gravity, which conveniently lumps them into the same category as people who question that too.

Paragraph two, "How dare you question climate change???": Call their argument a "straw-man" and proceed to attack their audacity to question "hard scientific facts" (which you personally haven't seen). Feel free to ignore their argument altogether by calling it "half-truths". Make some sort of reference to this person's education level, mainly that they are not a climate scientist (even though you're not one either!) and as such they have no idea what they're talking about - so they should trust the true experts.

Paragraph three, "Skeptics are coming over.": This is the meat of your argument! Although Richard Muller has actually been FOR climate change, this article claims that he was a skeptic but has now seen the light. If this skeptic has examined the evidence and come on over, why can't you? In fact, it's pretty obvious he was the last major credible holdout (even though if he was really a skeptic, we'd have said he was not credible in any way). We need to make it seem like there is a complete and united scientific consensus about climate change.

Paragraph four, "Case closed.": End on a high note! Make sure to say that case is closed, and has been closed for a long time. The debate is over. Everyone but the person you are replying to believes in global warming. This will make them feel like they are just pushing against a closed door.

Congratulations, you have won! If they are stupid enough to come back with real data, repeat this process until they feel so ashamed that they just shut up.
Science

+ - American Grant Writing: Race Matters->

Submitted by PHPNerd
PHPNerd writes "You might expect that science, particularly American science, would be colour-blind. Though fewer people from some of the country’s ethnic minorities are scientists than the proportions of those minorities in the population suggest should be the case, once someone has got bench space in a laboratory, he might reasonably expect to be treated on merit and nothing else. Unfortunately, a study just published in Science suggests that is not true. The study looked at the pattern of research grants awarded by the NIH and found that race matters a lot. Moreover, Asian and Hispanic scientists do just as well as white ones. Black scientists, however, do badly."
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Iphone

+ - iPod Touch to be rebranded iPhone Wi-Fi?->

Submitted by PHPNerd
PHPNerd writes "Most people refer to the iPod Touch as an "iPhone without the phone." With FaceTime and iMessages, to be released with iOS 5 in the fall, the iPod Touch essentially becomes a phone. The only difference is that it can only connect to a Wi-Fi network, not a 3G network. Since the iPad line is currently split into Wi-Fi and 3G, it makes sense to do the same with the iPhone. Is it possible the iPod Touch will be going away, and that it will be replaced by the iPhone Wi-Fi?"
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Comment: Re:The true believer (Score 1) 1328

by PHPNerd (#33460852) Attached to: Hawking Picks Physics Over God For Big Bang
I'll play your game. :) The real world has always existed with religion, whether formal or informal. The oldest piece of human creation that we have is a clay household god. We as humans (or at least as "human society") have never known a world without religion in some fashion. So this hypothetical world would have to have existed without religion from its start. But in a hypothetical world without religion, if you came up to me and told me this apparent nonsense, I would probably like to know more about this "man who lives in the sky", for it would truly be a novel idea, maybe even having some merit to help explain why bad things happen to good people, what happens when you die, and other existential problems that this hypothetical world without religion had so far left unanswered because it can't be empirically tested.

Comment: I just did this (Score 1) 150

by PHPNerd (#32950084) Attached to: Cool, Science-y Masters Programs For Software Devs?
I was a CS undergraduate major and I also was looking for new areas of research. I recently completed a Masters of Applied Cognition and Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas. I took a mixture of classes in neuroscience, computer science, and AI. The AI classes were focused on approaching the subject from the perspective of the human brain. It was very fascinating and I could have gone on for a PhD (which was my original plan) but then I discovered that I did not like the heavy research end of that subject. However, you might like it. They were doing some very interesting studies in bionics. Hope you find what you're looking for. Cheers.

Comment: This has been happening to me for months (Score 1) 262

by PHPNerd (#32264696) Attached to: Microsoft Warns of Windows 7 Graphics Flaw
My box will randomly crash. The screen wigs out and then the box reboots. It's not even a BSoD, the whole screen goes completely crazy for about 5 seconds before it reboots, and it occurs at totally random times. I have triple (probably quadruple at this point) checked that all hardware is compatible, all software is completely up-to-date, all drivers are up-to-date, and I have paid top-of-the-line antivirus software. I finally gave up and chalked it up to Win7 64-bit....looks like I was right.

Comment: Sequel? No, give us Silmarillion (Score 5, Interesting) 298

by PHPNerd (#31523910) Attached to: Filming For <em>The Hobbit</em> Begins In July

The planned sequel to The Hobbit is to be an original story not written by Tolkien, covering the 60 years between The Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings."

A sequel NOT written by Tolkien? Ew. How about instead another prequel taken from The Silmarillion? That would be full of awesome, almost guaranteed to win several internets.

"Whom are you?" said he, for he had been to night school. -- George Ade

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