Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:My prediction for this discussion (Score 1) 412

I mean, seriously, why do you care if Earth becomes another Venus?

My twin nieces, Ruby and Winnie. My nephews Leo and Max.

Sorry to appeal to emotion, but I find your attitude a little cold, a little remote, a little shitty.

You know, every person on our overcrowded, polluted world was a sweet little child once and now there's over 250 born every minute. And more and more of us are moving up to the resource-intensive middle class economic orbit. Back in the 80s I used to say that we're all stuffed when the Chinese all aspire to motor cars. What's their car ownership rate now?

It might appear cold hearted but we're heading for either a population correction or a major resource crunch. BTW, I have great neices and nephews that I worry about but it doesn't change the broad course we're on.

Comment Re:And (Score 1) 170

Know what bothers me the most, is that there are democratic countries with "kill lists" , they even go public with it, and is fine, completely fine no one seems to bother !!

Every country has a list somewhere of people that they want dead. Every. Last. One. And what's wrong with them being public? Would it be more ethical and moral if they were private? What's really going on here is your idea of democracy is this utopian society where everyone is nice to each other and because it's so wonderful nobody would ever want to kill another person. The only place like that is North Korea. Everywhere else strives for balance between freedom and security. And even if a perfect utopia were to emerge in the world, it would be standing shoulder to shoulder with dystopias wanting nothing more than to pull it down to their level.

Non-violence is a virtue; It's something to strive for. It's not something that has ever, or likely will ever be, obtainable. Not by large groups of people. Not by governments.

This is so incorrect I don't know where to start. But I would guess the poster is a US-ian who thinks the whole world has the same violence-is-the-only-solution mindset as them. Well, they don't. Most of the world considers US foreign policy to be part of the problem.

Comment Re:If you’re 27 or younger, you’ve nev (Score 2) 623

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration summarizes October 2012:

The average temperature across land and ocean surfaces during October was 14.63C (58.23F). This is 0.63C (1.13F) above the 20th century average and ties with 2008 as the fifth warmest October on record. The record warmest October occurred in 2003 and the record coldest October occurred in 1912. This is the 332nd consecutive month with an above-average temperature.

Emphasis added. If you were born in or after April 1985, if you are right now 27 years old or younger, you have never lived through a month that was colder than average. That’s beyond astonishing....

Maps and the full article are here.

Is that the discredited NOAA figures http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/29/press-release-2 ?

Comment Re:Don't lower the bar. (Score 1) 196

If the prospective editor can't use mark-up, what does that tell you about their overall intellectual ability? Keep Wikipedia great, full of high-quality articles by intellectuals -- disallow visual editing.

And while we're at it, let's get rid of drive-by editors, introduce a pending queue for edits by new editors etc etc. Wikipedia is now to important to allow kiddies and spammers to, even temporarily, introduce mis-edits.

Comment Re:Its the economy stupid! (Score 1) 342

If by "leading the way" you mean "stigmatizing bike riders as too poor to own a car", then you're right. I see about 1-2 people per month wearing spandex, which means they're riding recreationally. The rest are working poor...to be looked down upon, in the same way that normal Americans look down on rural residents.

In London you see many cycle commuter wearing racing-style gear and many more wearing shorts and t-shirts. Most will be showering and changing into office clothes when they get to work.

Comment Re:one word! (Score 1) 678

Actually, I may be wrong, but the way I see it, the Saudi government is actually rather progressive, for a Muslim nation. The King has pushed for many reforms there. The problem isn't the government, it's the people themselves: they're mostly a bunch of lunatics.

Are you serious? Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia#Politics - the royal family runs the show and is a barrier to reform in one of the most oppressive countries on earth.

Comment Re:Coase costs and the interface between cars/bike (Score 1) 1651

Most of the cycle deaths in London are at poorly designed junctions where big stuff can turn across the path of cyclists going forward.

That's because when you are in an auto turning left (in the UK) or right (in the USA), you are in the far left or right lane. Just because there is two feet between you and the curb doesn't make it a legal lane for a cyclist to shoot straight through. Bicycles need to observe lane discipline. Stay in line behind the previous vehicle. Or pass them on the correct side (after signaling and checking traffic to switch lanes). Then you won't get run over.

You've never ridden a bike in traffic, have you? Motor vehicles travel faster than you and often cut you up by passing and then turning.

Comment Re:Coase costs and the interface between cars/bike (Score 1) 1651

I've ridden a bike in London's dense, cycle-hostile traffic for 40 years and don't wear a helmet. On the morning commute I'd guess 9 out of 10 wear one but I don't believe a bit of polystyrene would make much difference if went under the wheels of a bus.

Most of the cycle deaths in London are at poorly designed junctions where big stuff can turn across the path of cyclists going forward.Investment in cycle lanes would save more lives than stupid helmets.

Comment Re:Excellent News! (Score 1) 504

You probably won't have to wait long, because Microsoft already has a fall back.

The Windows 7 interface worked acceptably well in early windows 8, even if you had to registry hack it into making an appearance.
I predict this will be their fall back position when they see sales tanking on everything except tablets.
They will flip a switch and presto-change-o the start bar will reappear.

People are not going to be reaching across their keyboards to smudge their screen on anything except tablets.
Its not going to happen.

Call me old fashioned but I like to keep my hands on the keyboard and don't like having to reach for the mouse, never mind stroking the screen. I have four icons on my work desktop and everything else is accessed via the start button (albeit using the Windows button).

Comment Re:formal != thrill (Score 1) 382

So let me get this right. Once upon a time, people treated getting into an aeroplane as a formal occasion, wearing suits and ties for a simple transportation event. Whereas we now treat it like any other instance of being out in public: it's fine to wear jeans and a teeshirt in a park or the subway, so it's fine to do the same in a plane. This is an argument for the old days?

And in which demented world is pressuring people to wear leather shoes instead of sandals or flip-flops on an intercontinental flight a "thrill"? Isn't there enough socially required formalwear at work?

There are still some folk who moan that people don't dress up for theatre or restaurants, that it lowers the tone. My father wore a jacket and tie all day, every day of his life, weekends and vacations included. I wear cargo pants and t-shirts for office, evenings and weekends. Things change.

Comment Re:Look (Score 1) 103

Complain about anything you want in a free society.

But the concept of freedom of speech does NOT apply to:

1. talk about killing someone specifically
2. talk about blowing something up specifically

If you don't understand why, you are pretty stupid.

Everything has its limits. EVERYTHING. You don't shout fire in a crowded theatre. You don't threaten to kill or maim or bomb. You don't publish your ex-wife's nude photos, etc.: there are actually LIMITS on what you can do or say in a free society. Those limits are where your "free speech" results in real harm to other individuals.

Plus, much of the people whining that no one can take a joke any more will be whining about why the police didn't follow up on the public comments of the next psycho who shoots up a mall or bombs a bus terminal, comments made before he did those atrocities.

The concept of freedom does not include the concept of freedom from responsibility.

Now mod me as troll, because I don't tow the ridiculously naive and cluelessly idealistic slashdot party line on "free speech".

Yes but if I make a statement like "our new goalkeeper needs a good kick up the backside" it should not be construed as an actual threat of physical violence. Should the police and courts punish everyone who makes such clearly non-serious remarks?

Slashdot Top Deals

Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

Working...