Depression is one of the areas I don't like to joke about. /. and the Internet in general do not count, and there are studies to back that up but I can't be arsed to google them for you. You actually need to go outside and physically meet other people to get the benefits of social activities.

Alcohol has been shown to be not effective in people suffering from depression. I'm not aware of any studies with sex, though it stands to reason that it will have short-term benefits.

Not that I'd argue pro-religion, that's on the same page as alcohol - even if it helps, you don't want all the payload unless you are already insane. Unfortunately, religions know very well how they work and do prey on the weak.

Yes, believing in some soothing bullshit lessens your stress levels, which has all kinds of benefits.

Believing aliens from outer space will save you at the last second will certainly make going into war easier to cope with as well.

Is there a difference between these? Not really, no. It's just that one is socially acceptable thanks to millenia of indoctrination, while the other one strike almost everyone as ridiculous bullshit.

See, the problem with believing in nonsense is that even if it reduces your stress and makes you feel happy and whatever else, ultimately, you still believe in nonsense and with all the downsides that has. There've been a few recent articles on that. For example, the "let's-destroy-the-planet-for-profit" mindset would have a much harder time if its proponents wouldn't believe in an afterlife and would realize this life on this planet is all we've got.

I've had this argument a hundred times, and it never changes. Yes, religion does some good. And for every good it does, it does two evils.

Not all possible, but 99% of them: Make it inaccessible from the inside of the aircraft.

So they don't shoot you down. If you wanted to commit suicide in this matter, you probably don't want just the plane, you want to fly it into something (9/11 probably gave you the idea).

So no, it doesn't add up - unless some nation shot it down and doesn't want to admit it. But that's as much speculation as anything else.

you are only correct from a *professional* pov.

if you are an amateur and don't intend to publish or make money from the work, you do not need a model release.

its good courtesy but in most countries, you don't need to ask permission if this is your personal collection. in the US, its definitely true that if you are in public, you don't need any release for non-pro image captures.

Dealers try to mystify and generally complicate the process of buying a car by offering to arrange financing, making you a trade-in "deal" and obfuscating the true cost of the car. Fortunately you can get a detailed break down of the dealer's costs (including factory to dealer incentives) from Consumer Reports. Then you arrange financing elsewhere (or pay cash), sell your existing car yourself, decide on how much markup you'll pay, and resolve not to buy any additional services or warranties through the dealer. If you do those things you won't be walking into the dealership like a lamb to slaughter. They might as well try to fuck the Rock of Gibraltar. Some of them will try, but you just walk out the door and find a dealership that will sell you a car on your terms.

The last car I bought I walked into the dealer; the salesman saw I had the printouts and said, "I'm not stupid. How much are you going to pay?" I named a price 5% over the dealer's true cost. I could have opened with 3%, but I appreciated not having to go through the whole ridiculous ritual. It was a reasonable offer and the salesman immediately accepted. Half an hour later we finished up the paperwork; I dropped off a cashier's check the following day and drove my car off the day after that. It was all low-key and civilized, and by executing the deal quickly the dealership earned a fair paycheck for a couple hours of work.

This is the way buying a car should be: you tell the dealer which model you want, hand over a check and drive off. Letting the dealer do anything else "for you" is asking to be screwed over. Despite what the salesman claims, there is nothing the dealer can do to make your life simpler, except maybe fetching your plates from the motor vehicle registry. Do everything else yourself, including determining the price you'll pay for the car.

I work in software but I love to hack hardware. there are many surplus electronics places around here that you won't find many other locations in the world.

there is a lot of food choices here and that's a huge draw for those of us who like choice.

you can dress how you like and few judge you by it.

the weather is amazing (we get our spring a week or two before valentines day, most years). cars don't rust out here and we only have snow if you drive to the mountains. you can ski if you drive there and you can go to the beach that same day if you want.

of course there are lots of big name computer-based companies out here. lots of start-ups, as well. (but semi high unemployment right now and companies that simply cannot be pleased and wont' hire you unless you walk on water, sigh).

housing is hella expensive here, that's true. cost of living otherwise is not much more than other nice areas in the country.

social views are very liberal (I consider that a good thing) and racial unrest - at least in the bay area - is essentially non existent other than near oakland and some other select areas; certainly not widespread and the crime rate is not at all high (car break-ins do happen, though).

all in all, I like being here and would be very sad to have to leave it. been here over 20 years and while the economy has certainly had its up and downs, there are more benefits than negatives to living here, especially for those of us who like to dabble in hardware hacking.

Cheese and frickin' rice

I've heard of sticky rice before. not sure what frickin' rice is. maybe that's what rice-a-roni is made out of??

If you think it's a bad experience when you have a single OS (plus first-party apps) vendor, and a separate manufacturer (e.g.: my Lenovo and it's bevy of task-tray items), try it now with two fully supported OSs out of the box.

While I agree that it sucks that Google and Microsoft both are trying to defeat this initiative, I can also say with a 95% certainty that even if the both condoned it, it would still be a really bad experience.

Google's hypocrisy with android being "Open" is what's really exposed here - in honesty, both Microsoft and Google are as bad as Apple in desiring closed platforms. It's just that Apple seems better at delivering said platform.

The problem with these morons is that they're endangering innocents, and not just their own kids. Your liberty ends where the life of someone else is being threatened, don't you agree?

It's not an argument when it's bullshit top to bottom. An argument requires some kind of logical chain. What religious and other faith-based nutjobs spout forth is statements, but not arguments.

Which is why I pre-ordered the book, to get it while it's still good.

I love the early Mythbusters, compared to them the recent ones are lame. Everything has its time and when it's done, then it's done.

I'm suspicious she has institutional support and funding - perhaps from some right-wing Christian fun die groups or perhaps from the corporatoracy class that wants to sell more vaccinations.

But putting her on trial would certainly uncover the rock and send the cockroaches scrambling.

We don't need to "get through to them" any more than we run advertisement campaigns to convince rapists and murderers to please behave, thank you.

These people are endangering lives of other people, first their children and second everyone else (see "herd immunity"). It's time to stop playing nice. Throw them in jail, vaccinate their kids while they're behind bars, let them go after a week with a heavy fine to pay for all the bullshit.

There's a time for being nice and cooperative and friendly, and there's a time for drawing a line in the sand and shooting everyone who crosses it. Everyone with a child knows that you can't yield all the time. Everyone who's ever been in negotiations knows that the right balance between cooperation and shows of strengths gets you the best results. There's even a program by the UN that educated diplomats that incorporates this simple strategy. And if you want to waste an hour of your time, google "Tit for tat", a simple algorithm that is proven to be the optimal strategy in iterated prisoners dilemma and works exactly this way: Reward cooperation with cooperation, punish betrayl, forgive after you've done that.

These people aren't cooperating. Time to stop cooperating with them.