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NHS Should Stop Funding Homeopathy, Says Parliamentary Committee 507

An anonymous reader writes "Homeopathic remedies work no better than placebos, and so should no longer be paid for by the UK National Health Service, a committee of British members of parliament has concluded. In preparing its report, the committee, which scrutinizes the evidence behind government policies, took evidence from scientists and homeopaths, and reviewed numerous reports and scientific investigations into homeopathy. It found no evidence that such treatments work beyond providing a placebo effect." Updated 201025 19:40 GMT by timothy: This recommendation has some people up in arms.
Patents

Patent Markings May Spell Trouble For Activision 82

eldavojohn writes "If you pick up your copy of Guitar Hero and read the literature, you'll notice it says 'patent pending' and cites a number of patents. A group alleges no such patent pends nor are some of the patents applicable. If a judge finds Activision guilty of misleading the public in this manner, they could become liable for up to $500 per product sold under false patent marking. The patents in question seem to be legitimately Guitar Hero-oriented, and little is to be found about the mysterious group. The final piece of the puzzle puts the filing in Texas Northern District Court, which might be close enough to Texas Eastern District Court to write this off as a new kind of 'false patent marking troll' targeting big fish with deep coffers."

Comment Re:money (Score 1) 156

He didn't have 300k, so I don't think he will get that in return. You're confusing the figures: 300k was what was earned by donations through the site. When he was arrested he only had 20k in savings.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tees/8457260.stm
I imagine they froze his account, but that he will be returned to his pittance of a savings account.

Comment Re:An opinion by a PhD and sustainable farmer (Score 1) 766

If you'll notice at the top of the page there's what's called an Impact Factor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor 3.24 is nothing to brush aside. That in itself shows a certain "legitimacy" of this journal. Also: the fact that this data CAN go both ways is enough to bring the original conclusions (that it is safe) into question and prompt new research.

Comment Consumers, or salespeople? (Score 1) 253

Maybe this has less to do with consumers, and more to do with the pressure salespeople are under to sell extended warranties (i.e. Best Buy, where I've heard each salesperson has a quota to meet)? As a salesperson, and if I were morally bankrupt, I would certainly use the recession to persuade a customer to get a warranty.

Comment No, it's not. (Score 1) 632

it's meaningless to say that 50,000 wikipedia editors left, unless you know the base number that it's drawn from.

They didn't say merely that 50,000 had left, even the summary mentions that it is a net loss of 50,000, and further, that's a net loss 10x larger than the previous year: which is then evidence of a trend. It doesn't matter then so much what the base number is, so much as the trend is worrying enough as it is, especially if it's exponential.

Comment Re:Once again (Score 1) 346

The most likely result of memorizing a book, and reproducing it by verbalization, unless said book is a novella, is that you would produce a derivative work (ala the Homeric bards), not a 1:1 copy. But please, for the love of the gods, don't sing Happy Birthday or they'll sue.

Comment Re:Does anyone really believe the scores ? (Score 1, Insightful) 169

>But we don't do we ? There is a reason for that. It's a lot of hard work and cost bringing a product to market and generally, the real dogs are killed long before they hit the shelves. I've been reviewing hardware/software for 20 odd years now and I can only remember giving a score of less than 4 a handful of times. Equally, 9 & 10 is rare (for me). The vast majority of stuff is 'good enough' and merits 7 or 8 out of 10. TBH, I get really frustrated by constantly dishing out 7s and 8s and the few times something has turned up for review that's truly bad, I'm been delighted as it gives me a chance to have a real opinion.

And this is exactly the mentality that has invalidated reviewer sites: you're looking out for the developers of these games, not the consumers who are your audience. Who cares if "it was a lot of hard work" when that hard work amounts to shit? If it's shit, say so, don't pretend its worthy because it was effortful shit.

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