But old men (and women) have spent extensive time analyzing the "intricacies of the politics and philosophy of mythical beings" from texts for millenia. Isn't that what religion really is?

Just to be clear: "Anonymous Coward" is asking how "Twatface" can be taken seriously.

Thank you. Love the esoteric Dune reference. Please Mod up!

I agree about the classes breakdown instead of the majors breakdown. Would some of the "cheating" being reported in this study be akin to using CliffNotes in the pre-internet years? Would you consider using CliffNotes to comprehend what the teacher wants to hear when writing about Dickens or Poe?

Exactly! It is VERY difficult to cheat on an oral exam. Oral exams also provide a means for a back and forth between questioner and answerer that allows for the student to delve into their understanding versus having to remember the exact syntax of procedureX(), which is completely unapplicable in the real world.

Greater student-instructor interaction would remove a large amount of the questions surrounding this whole issue of "is it cheating?" and "is cheating acceptable?".

Gah! I just noticed that a) the 9,000 DUI deaths is from a site with absolutely zero citations, b) that site obviously has a bias in inflating the numbers, and c) the graph that you directed us to is data from the year 2000.

Well, I guess if we contain the numbers to those we both agreed to use, my statements still stand.

But I have very little faith that ANY of the numbers used from either side have much accuracy at all...

The graph you link to indicates Aclohol in one column, Traffic Collisions in another column, and a whole slew of other categories.

Traffic Collisions are at 43,000. (I would assume that drunk driving deaths would be included in this column, as opposed to death due to alcoholism being what is found in the Alcohol column) 9,000 is just shy of 21% of all traffic deaths. That is not insignificant.

However, DUI caused total just over half those caused by drug abuse (17,000), just under half those caused by STD's (20,000), just under 1/3 those caused by firearms (29,000) (side note: DUI's cause just less preventable deaths than homicide by firearm, and just more than 50% of firearms suicides), and is just over 10% of the deaths caused by alcoholism (85,000!).

According to your stats, there were 870,909 total preventable deaths in the US last year. That puts DUIs at 1% of the preventable deaths. If you exclude smoking and obesity, you have 324,000, of which DUIs' would be 2.8%.

There is not a single overall category that is less than DUI caused deaths. In fact there is not a single overall category that is not close to TWICE as many deaths when compared to DUIs. And overall, you are looking at 1%. Considering the homicide and suicide numbers are only with regards to firearms, and are not an overall total, I would have to say the DUI is pretty low on the list.

The only thing that I will give you is that that 9,000 deaths is right on par with how many deaths "studies" show are prevented by seat belt use each year. (Wikipedia Seat Belts)

Fair enough. But would you agree that the size of the grain of truth in my statement corresponds directly with how much you do the actual rewriting, as opposed to just red penning the works in question?

Sounds like you may be promoting the problem from the other side of the fence. Instead of the HR cog that it is ignoring anything that doesn't have a degree, you are now putting college degrees into the hands of people that are too scatter-brained to maintain a train of thought. Nevermind the fact that you are abetting in what is technically cheating. Shame on you and your friends.

Why in the world is this modded flamebait? It is actually the first response (that I've read) that is common with my marriage. And the final note of "Different strokes I guess" is fairly indicative of an honest response that was not thrown in with the intent of stoking the fires.

I guess modders were not in the mood to read about a couple in a cohesive yet indiviudal marriage.

You are forgetting another important piece that is missing. High value items that would be desirable for a thief to acquire using the stolen info. Most thieves that would go so far as to collect behavioral patterns would not be interested in using the stolen financial info at the local liquor store or CVS. If they want to try to use it at my local pub, I would be very interested in meeting them and asking why they went through so much trouble for such a minimal reward.

Now, if you happen to steal a card and pattern that involves frequently purchasing and flipping foreclosed houses, it could get more interesting! But I'm fairly certain that would be a rare enough case that it still wouldn't be worth it.

Wish I had mod points. That is a very very insightful story. I can see that moral being applied to a TON of news snippets heard every day. Thank you.

Everybody understands some part of the tools they are using. Whether it is "I type and letters appear on the computer screen" or "the engine won't turn so the battery is dead".

However, all systems have always had some black boxes that are simply accepted. The people that were running water wheel mills...how much did they understand of glaciers waxing and waning impacting their waterway that is being tapped? People that could maintain cars in the 50s and 60s...How much did they understand of why fuel + oxygen + spark = combustion? Or about how pulses of exhaust can hinder engine performance if not handled perfectly? Or how to make rubber for use on tires?

Every one of us exists with black boxes that, even though we may be curious, never get peered into. Sometimes, just being able to use a tool is enough.

Thank you. Completey agree. If they were JUST referencing Mintority Report, I could see not caring as it might be about special effects, endings completely the opposite from the original story, or Tom Cruise. But since they are actually calling out "Pre Crime" in the title, give the credit where it is due.

Considering most fire trucks display a warning to stay FIVE HUNDRED FEET back, 65 feet seems pretty close. Think about the number of seats in any sporting venue that are way more than 65 feet away from the action. A fair percentage of seats in a movie theater will be more than 65 feet from the screen.

Really, we're talking 22 yards here. That's pretty close.

0.0123106061 miles.