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Comment Re:Not sure which is more understandable... (Score 1) 16

It's clearly meant to be fun and engage people in scientific research, not replace reading actual journal articles. The main benefit might be getting researchers to think about how to present their ideas in different ways. It's an issue with many scientists.

If I asked a friend how his research was going, he would start rattling off gene name acronyms and abbreviations for experiments and I would get totally lost a minute into it.
Interkin3tic: "Hey man, how's the research going?"
Friend:"Well we did a co-ip of MAD when conjugated at the kinetochore of a meiosis haploid culture with GFP tail swap nup52 and then quantified pixel intensity based on subresolution microscopy on the spinning disc and found the number was 410 instead of 320."
Interkin3tic: "Uh... oh. You still work on plants, right?"

That sounds like something like he would say and I would get out of it about as much as you got out of it. And I was familiar with his research: I proofread his papers and discussed it with him regularly. We're not the best communicators, we get way too technical way too quick. Making us communicate without technical terms is a good way to encourage better communication. And without communication, there's little point to science.

That said, I would never want to see him dance anything, let alone plant molecular biology.

Comment Re:It's why I stick with Nexus devices (Score 2) 201

Personally, I get a sort of satisfaction out of rooting my phone when samsung or whoever clearly doesn't want me to. Same with jailbreaking. After installing cyanogenmod on my samsung, and after jailbreaking, I really didn't do much with either. If I wasn't flipping the bird to someone telling me how to use my stuff, it became a lot more boring.

It's nerdy and ineffective, I know.

Comment Re:Disable is disabled (Score 1) 201

Actually, for most people it's cheaper, since the big networks don't give you a discount for buying your own phone. If you're talking about switching from AT&T or verizon, then sure it would be cheaper, but staying within those two as most people do, no, it's cheaper to subsidize a phone, since you pay the same price anyway.

Comment Re:Accountable? (Score 2) 559

I'm sure she's taking a lot more shit in the press than your average Secretary does, especially when you consider the ACA battle. Not saying feel sorry for her, just that she probably thought it would be a cushy job, and she instead deals with a lot of outrage, both manufactured and real. Maybe she means accountable for her expectations, not accountable as in what you or I would consider accountable.

Comment Re: O'rly? No wai! (Score 2) 201

Just to be clear, I think that's a function of online services, not google specifically, and not android. Facebook is worse. It keeps asking me where I work, where I went to high school etc. It clearly has enough information to guess, as it makes suggestions which are pretty spot on based on my friends' data.

My android phone, I never get nuisances like that. My ipad is actually worse. It keeps asking me to sign in with gamecenter.

Not to say that google is superior, just that online services you use for "free" will always pester you like virtual paparazzi.

Comment Re:Those that know ... (Score 1) 183

Why not? Seems to me that CEOs are basically celebrities. They don't directly generate anything that is worth what they are paid. It's their name that gets other people excited and gets the money flowing. Keeping it secret doesn't make a whole lot of sense if the only reason they're considering Elop is to make the stock price go up. "Elop!?! WOW!!! I KNOW THAT NAME, BUY BUY BUY!!! I hear he's already made more money for MS than the outgoing CEO did!!!"

I mean, it's not like he's good actually leading companies.

They don't keep it super secret which celebrity actors they've hired for movies for the same reason. They want buzz.

Comment Re:Dystopia (Score 5, Insightful) 340

Wrong agriculture business. This is antibiotic resistance. Monsanto is arguably causing herbicide and pesticide resistance, although such claims are stupid: they made the herbicides and pesticides, and they worked. It wasn't going to last forever if it was used widely, and if it wasn't used widely to make cheap foodstock, what's the bloody point?

They even took steps to limit that much. The terminator seed technology was partly intended to prevent contamination: if the plants can't breed, they're less likely to mix with wild species and contaminate them. Obviously they had a lot of financial interest in it, both because if resistance gets into the pest populations, that's going to make their product worthless. And in response to the controversy and accusations that it would screw over farmers, Monsanto never actually put terminator seeds on the market.

Anyway, pointing fingers is only so helpful, even at the agricultural entities that ARE driving antibiotic resistance. At this point, we know the looming disaster. It's not rocket science or even climate science either. This is high school biology. Businesses can be expected to faithfully act without any regard other than immediate profit. Ignorant patients will always find greedy doctors willing to give them antibiotics they don't need for diseases that aren't bacterial. Fixing the problem won't happen voulontarily. We need legislation to prevent milk from cows treated with antibiotics from being sold in supermarkets cheaper than untreated milk. Same with other livestock. It's an externalized cost: there's an advantage to it that needs to be taken away. We also need to strip the medical licenses of doctors who give out antibiotics for the cold. Either they're shockingly ignorant of the last 20 years of research and aren't fit to be doctors, or they're intentionally contributing to a real health hazard and should face criminal charges.

Comment Re:Just remember: No Transfers! (Score 2) 147

People will accept more abuse the lower the price. If I'm buying an overpriced italian car for like $300k, the dealership had better treat me like royalty, offer free oil changes etc. If I'm getting a decent german car for free, the dealership could have an overweight hairy man moon me and fart at me the whole time I'm there, tell me I'm fucking scum, and have a witch curse me to get warts or something. I'd still take it.

The Wii was always cheaper than the other consoles and broke less often than at least the 360 in most cases. I'm guessing that buying an original wii after launch and then the wii mini would still be cheaper than a single 360 for much of the 360's life. And that's assuming you only had to buy one.

(Disclaimer: I rarely used my wii, bought a second 360 after my first one broke, and only switched to PC gaming recently, so I'm a big idiot. Also if a dealership actually had an obese man fart at me, I'd probably get creeped out and leave.)

Comment Re:Good Job, But... (Score 2) 166

Read the article: they're looking for methane, which has not been done before and could indicate life on mars. Moreover, half the benefits of a space program seem to be developing it. They're developing aerospace capabilities which will translate into other fields. They're developing high expertise jobs to retain skilled engineers and scientists. Looking at the budget cuts, they're doing it at a great time too: while the US seems bound and determined to send all it's scientists away. Because low taxes or something.

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