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Comment Re:For crying out loud... (Score 1) 224

If people only choose from the top 10 or so results from any search engine, and they make fairly generic searches, search engine choice shouldn't matter to much. For popular things, they all return approximately the same thing (in my experience, not in the same order, but they're mostly all there on the front page). People who are persnickety and make special searches a lot likely have a favored engine and will change the settings to match their needs. Most people want to configure their computer to do things about as much as they want to change the oil in their car.

Comment Re:Sex (Score 1) 703

Most of the problem is that sexual reproduction and evolution makes several contradictions with some really popular book that people take too literally.

There, fixed that for you. Also, the animals appear in the creation story in approximately the same order that evolution stipulates they would. Does it mean anything? I don't know, but it's not a flat out contradiction by a long shot. The contradictions exist in peoples' minds. The book you're talking about is too big and complex to contradict all but a few things.

Comment Re:Where are the technical people on /. (Score 1) 367

Here's a good quick read on the topic. Martial Law in the USThe Supreme Court ruled Lincoln's declaration of Martial Law unconstitutional, by way of Milligan, a Confederate dissenter (funny how that works). It was martial law, though. I'm not sure how much weight the Supreme Court has at that point...

Comment Re:Where are the technical people on /. (Score 1) 367

Declaring martial law has never happened in the US. Doing so would have huge negative political ramifications, as it should.

Incorrect. Open your history book to the Civil War.

President Lincoln declared a congressionally-approved martial law during the Civil War (along with suspending Haebus Corpus by himself two years earlier) and suspended the Haebus Corpus in the entire US with Congressional approval. You can argue whether or not it was the right decision, but I'd say we're still here, slave free, and a little less morally bankrupt today than we were then. Though, honest Abe might have been an exception to the rule when it came to the corrupting nature of power...who knows?

Comment Re:We need more of these articles (Score 1) 306

The nature of our DOE, NASA, and DOD budgets allow for this type of uncontrolled spending.

I think it's more of the fact that the people working at these organizations don't play hardball with contractors and make them finish on time and in budget. We need accountability measures that make these firms liable for budget overruns and late deliveries, especially ones that are so egregious.

Comment Re:Just like cassettes (Score 1) 362

By the OP's suggestion I should ditch all my books and scan/torrent/rebuy them in PDF.

No, he didn't come out and say that. He said that the prices of CDs have dropped because they are an inferior medium (decidedly by the consumer's purchasing habits). Inferior because they take up space and aren't portable relative to an electronic copy. You could follow that your books are an inferior medium to ebooks, but there are a few kinks with ebooks left to work out, namely how the reading feels with books v ebooks.

Comment Re:Biased much? (Score 2, Insightful) 601

It's an interesting topic if the numbers are correct. It warrants some explanation at the least. Perhaps insane FOIA requests are up from 2008, or maybe the Obama administration is taking secret keeping lessons from Steve Jobs. I don't think one year comparison between the two administrations is really fair. We should probably wait until Obama's first four years are over. Who cares where the original story was from if the topic of conversation is true?

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