el jocko del oeste - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Heat and movement (Score 1) 214

by el jocko del oeste on Monday June 04, 2012 @10:38AM (#40208677) Attached to: When Continental Drift Was Considered Pseudoscience

He was, of course, making irrational stuff up, that accidentally happened to turn out to be correct. Kind of like the ancient greek version of atomic theory.

If real, usable, economic warp speed spacecraft propulsion is ever invented, that doesn't mean the "star trek" writers should get credit.

I agree. And it's high time that we stopped giving Darwin credit for that evolution thing. He had no idea how it worked! Genes and DNA? He'd never heard of them.

Comment Re:I don't see how this is possible. (Score 4, Informative) 178

by el jocko del oeste on Tuesday May 08, 2012 @05:43PM (#39934557) Attached to: Microsoft Makes Ambitious Carbon Neutral Pledge

They use a lot of electricity. Unless Microsoft is planning to buy "carbon offset" credits, so they can pollute and yet just handwave it away.

That's exactly what they're doing. They're touting their effort to reduce their energy usage and their purchase of carbon offsets to cover the energy that they can't avoid using.

Comment Re:Can someone explain to me (Score 1) 684

by el jocko del oeste on Thursday May 03, 2012 @05:46PM (#39883419) Attached to: Growing Evidence of Football Causing Brain Damage

Once they get into their teen years, heading the ball is quite common. And the risk of concussion is very real. You have a couple of culprits. First, the head-to-head contact that sometimes occurs when two players attempt to head the same ball can lead to a concussion. Second, a ball to the side of the head, especially if it's unexpected, can also sometimes result in a concussion. Finally, the simple act of repeatedly heading the ball leads to a sequence of sub-concussive impacts, which may have some long term affect on the player's brain (though the jury is still out on this part).

Comment Re:First Sale Doctrine? (Score 3, Informative) 489

by el jocko del oeste on Monday April 16, 2012 @03:43PM (#39703163) Attached to: Student Charged For Re-selling Textbooks

According to TFA, this book was legally published abroad by a subsidiary of the American publisher. I don't see it as very complicated at all: the copy was legal, so it should be legal to import it.

That would make sense. Except that U.S. Copyright law explicitly forbids it:

602. Infringing importation of copies or phonorecords

(a) Importation into the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright under this title, of copies or phonorecords of a work that have been acquired outside the United States is an infringement of the exclusive right to distribute copies or phonorecords under section 106, actionable under section 501.

What's not clear is whether the First Sale Doctrine applies to books manufactured outside of the U.S. And that's the real question that's being put in front of the SC. If they decide that the First Sale Doctrine applies in this case, then the importation of these books for resale will be legal. If it doesn't apply, then it won't be legal.

Comment Re:Oh Baby Jeebus the hypocrisy (Score 1) 294

by el jocko del oeste on Friday April 13, 2012 @10:47AM (#39673443) Attached to: North Korea Shows Off Space Center and Launches Missile

1) This was not a weapons test.

This was a test of a weapon delivery system. You do recall the whole point behind the US and the USSR racing to be the first to put a man on the moon? Developing Tang and bringing home a few rocks had nothing to do with it.

Comment Re:Oh Baby Jeebus the hypocrisy (Score 1) 294

by el jocko del oeste on Friday April 13, 2012 @10:43AM (#39673377) Attached to: North Korea Shows Off Space Center and Launches Missile

One of the largest as in "one of the largest". North Korea has the fourth largest active duty army in the world. Behind China, USA, and India. Ahead of Russia. I think that can safely be considered one of the largest.

Slashdot Top Deals