>> Tell me, how anyone was able to parse that document in 4 seconds, place the trade, and have it go through after hours.

As someone said, 4 secs could be ample time for a bot.

Even if not:

People who speculate try to figure out what the market is going to do without knowledge of the future, based on publicly available information.

Unless you are claiming that you know for a fact that no trading system ever works, there is the possibility that whatever shorted google had simply figured out based on public data that it's not a good buy - that their trading system went very bearish on it. Isn't that a possibility?

> 22 comments in.... (Score:3, Interesting)
>...and not a single Simpson's overlords quote
> Slashdot, what's happened to you?

Look, it's not that bad. Look carefully, and it finds mention, right at the 23rd comment.

The best "science sight" to see is that of beautiful galaxies and wormholes upclose, as seen in "Contact." For that you do what Dr. Arroway did - you visit the beautiful scenery in New Mexico/Arizona/Puerto Rico. Now, I know that's a reward in itself, but don't rest there. Don't forget to put on a headphone and listen to alien signals.

> Stardust is exactly right. Most of the heavy elements (non-hydrogen or helium) were produced

Enough with the PC "stardust" already. Let's say it how it is.

We are starpoop!

>> "No amount of carefully worded campaign e-mails are going to convince me to vote for a President who has normalized extra-judicial assassinations of American citizens by the CIA."

> Um, just to be clear, George W. Bush isn't running, ok?

You should really try to keep up with news before making snarky remarks.

> Here in our university, in many departments, when they hire IT staff, they don't hire full time staff, instead they hire international grad students which is much cheaper... [and] they suck.

If you are being truthful, that's pretty bizarre. In my grad school, the average foreign student was typically much better, and I have heard anecdotes to that effect from other grad schools as well. There certainly were some very bright Americans as well, but the *average* grad student could kick the *average* American's butt any day.

Of course, you'd find people like you complaining about that as well. "It's not really fair to us. We are having to compete with the cream of the crop of 2 billion Indians and Chinese."

Slashdot.. Late again. He resigned in 1984.

Enough with the dupes already! ;-)

> No, half the population is NOT necessarily below average; that's >
> true when there's a normal distribution.

Yes, half the population *is* below average, - the median, that is - for *any* distribution.

I think it's the reader's duty to try to parse what's written in a favorable light, rather than intentionally choose a definition that renders a phrase wrong and then make a smart comment about it. :P

> Yes, [Obama] is a lying SOB.

I have to agree with that.

It really gets me how he famously promised to revisit the PATRIOT act if elected. What does he do when elected? Colludes with the Republicans to renew the act even as his own party voted 2:1 against it. He then had the gall to praise it as good for the country.

> Because in Obama's 1.5 years in office the national debt has increased as much as it did during Reagan's 8 years in office and as much as it did during GWB's second term, despite Obama's campaign promises to end Bush's wars that were so very expensive and costing the nation so much money.

You do know that most of this increase was caused *during* the Bush wars, right? The Bush administration kept it off the books with accounting tricks, Obama brought it back on the books.