Comment F4988 (Score 1) 142
unexpected end of format
Stem Cell Tourists Take Costa Rica Off the Agenda 206
An anonymous reader writes "Stem cell tourism is a booming and troubling industry, in which clinics in places like Mexico, China, and India offer rich tourists experimental stem-cell-based treatments, none of which have been approved by the FDA here in the US. (Check out some of these creepy sites that offer treatments for everything from autism to MS, and even the 'very common ailment called aging.') But in one positive development, Costa Rica just shut down its top stem cell clinic. Said the country's health minister, 'This isn't allowed in any serious country in the world.'"
Comment Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway (Score 1) 680
I don't understand people that think speed limits are moral imperatives that fall on the same line as murder or arson. You people act like I just raped somebody if I want to go 55 in a 50 mile an hour zone.
I live in Houston on I-10, and due to a huge environmental/safety push they lowered the speed limit from 70 to 55. It was a joke, the highway is built for speed and it has excellent lines of visibility and
- intelligently designed merging sections
, and they make you crawl down it. Nobody did the speed limit so they upped it to 60, which didn't really help. As a result you get fast swerving traffic trying to move at the natural pace down the highway, moving through slow road bumps.
If they would pick a reasonable speed limit based on the design of the road, and not the result of some safety pissing campaign then I bet you could get people to actually follow it.
I'm betting that the Texas DOT had more to do with those merging sections than God... Crazy Texans, always trying to push intelligent design.
The "Scientific Impotence" Excuse 892
chichilalescu writes "I've had the feeling for a long time that people refuse to listen to scientists. The following is from an article on Ars Technica: 'It's hardly a secret that large segments of the population choose not to accept scientific data because it conflicts with their predefined beliefs: economic, political, religious, or otherwise. But many studies have indicated that these same people aren't happy with viewing themselves as anti-science, which can create a state of cognitive dissonance. That has left psychologists pondering the methods that these people use to rationalize the conflict. A study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology [abstract here] takes a look at one of these methods, which the authors term "scientific impotence" — the decision that science can't actually address the issue at hand properly.' The study found that 'regardless of whether the information presented confirmed or contradicted [the subjects'] existing beliefs, all of them came away from the reading with their beliefs strengthened."
Comment Obligatory Denis Leary quote: (Score 1) 763
"Forget about that. Bring me a live cow over to the table. I'll carve off what I want and ride the rest home!"
Apple Is Nintendo's "Enemy of the Future" 272
Pickens writes "The San Francisco Chronicle reports that video game industry revenue fell by 26 percent in April, adding more concerns about the health of the industry in the worst year-over-year decline since July 2009. But the big news is that the decline in portable sales makes up 61 percent of the overall monthly decline, suggesting that the Nintendo DS platform is losing steam but also reflecting the growing clout of the iPhone platform as the iPhone and iPod Touch continue to draw in more casual gamers, the iPad offers a bigger screen experience, and Apple announces the 'Game Center' — a social gaming hub with console-like online gaming features. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata is understood to have told his senior executives recently to regard the battle with Sony as a victory already won and to treat Apple, and its iPhone and iPad devices, as the 'enemy of the future.' 'If Nintendo's future mobile platforms are to be any kind of success, the company will have to figure out how to take on the ease of use afforded by the App Store,' writes Nicholas Deleon. A large part of Nintendo's faith in reviving its efforts hinge on the 3DS, which may ship in the fall, the first truly major handheld introduction for Nintendo since the original DS in 2004. He adds, 'Maybe Nintendo should just release a phone?'"
Comment Re:Democracy needs smart people (Score 1) 1138
This guy is forgetting that we live in a (sort of) democracy. How would a democracy where the people aren't educated work?
Im fairly certain the result would be similar to this place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey
Comment Fast (Score 1) 143
Looks like it's being fixed...
Law Professors Developing Patent License For FOSS 41
Julie188 writes with this quote from a Networkworld article:
"Two law professors from UC Berkeley have come up with a novel idea to protect open source developers from patent bullies. They call it the Defensive Patent License. They hope the DPL can address the objections FOSS developers have with patents the way the GPL addressed them for copyright. The DPL is similar to the concept of a defensive patent pool, but is not the same. The DPL is a bit more radical. It requires a bigger commitment from its members than the typical toe-in-the-water kind of pool, says Jason Schultz, former staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 'The perception is that bigger companies only commit their least-effective, least-important patents to a patent pool,' he says. Schultz isn't pointing fingers at any particular pool. However critics of IBM's open source patent pledge often said it didn't cover the patents most relevant to the FOSS community."
Comment Re:Though the Times They May Look Grim ... (Score 1) 389
Well played...
Comment Great road rage tools (Score 1) 594
I like to keep pockets of pennies for when I go out riding. When someone decides that they want to attempt to kill you, whether by not seeing you, or by trying to pass you illegally. You simply destroy their paint job, by throwing a random amount of pennies at their car.
Comment Re:Though the Times They May Look Grim ... (Score 2, Funny) 389
They may take our identities, but they'll never take OUR LOLCATS!!!!
Submission + - Main PHP-Nuke.org Site Compromised (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: The main site for the PHP-Nuke content management system software has been compromised and is serving malicious iFrame exploits to visitors. Researchers at Websense found that the phpnuke.org site is currently serving several different exploits. The attack uses the common iFrame-redirection technique to hijack users' browsers and send them off to a malicious site. The code on that site is highly obfuscated and contains exploits for three separate vulnerabilities, two in Internet Explorer and one in Adobe Reader.
Submission + - Microsoft Contributing to jQuery Project (asp.net)
barryfandango writes: Microsoft's Scott Guthrie has announced on his blog (and in his recent MIX keynote that MS' Visual Studio team is contributing to the jQuery project, by " following the same process to contribute to jQuery as any other member of the community."
US Air Force Launches Secret Flying Twinkie 234
Spectrummag writes "One of the most secretive US Air Force spaceflights in decades, launched this month, is keeping aficionados guessing as to the nature of the secret. The 6000-kilogram, 8-meter X-37B, nicknamed the flying Twinkie because of its stubby-winged shape, is supposed to orbit Earth for several weeks, maneuver in orbit, then glide home. What's it for? Space expert James Oberg tracks the possibilities."
