Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Promiscuity (Score 1) 266

I'll disagree about one particular point here:

"Sex has values and judgments attached to it that eating, for example, doesn't"

Not in any world I've lived in. The choices people make about the food they eat IS frequently judged and valued. The term "fat slob" comes to mind first here, as it's a value judgment about a whole person made from looking at one particular aspect of their behavior - their eating habits. Eating habits are frequently "disgusting" or "tidy", and people's choices of meals are "wholesome" or even "revolting". All of these terms are my attempt to illustrate one important thing: everything about you gets judged. I don't mean this in any religious sense either, it is a simple fact of life though that those around you judge your character constantly and through every action you take (or don't take).

In fact, I bet that if people were truly honest about how often you make value judgments on a person based on a small sample of their behavior (clothes, food, manner of speech, etc), we wouldn't have any room to talk about anything else.

Comment Re:Can somebody 'splain this? (Score 1) 361

First - Commercial paper is neither shady or immoral. The terms are laid out in black and white, and investors are equally free to accept the deal or walk away.

Second - What if you DID run out and buy a shit load of gear on credit for your business? And then what if all that gear came in handy for, I don't know, extra unexpected work?! And what if the reward of that unexpected extra work was more money than you paid for both the gear and the interest on borrowing?!

Wouldn't you then have actually benefited from borrowing?

By not borrowing though, you've foregone that opportunity, many many times over. In fact, I guarantee you that your business would be bigger if you had borrowed within your ability to pay this whole time.

Don't believe me? Do some finance reading.

Feed Science Daily: Possible Hepatitis C Vaccine (sciencedaily.com)

The hepatitis C virus infects up to 500,000 people in the UK alone, many of the infections going undiagnosed. It is the single biggest cause of people requiring a liver transplant in Britain. Now scientists have found monoclonal antibodies which may be a significant step towards a vaccine.

Feed Techdirt: The Cash Tax Not Enough To Make It Go Extinct (techdirt.com)

A recent report from England found quantified the amount of money the British government makes just from printing currency. As it turns out, it amounts to a fairly sizable tax. In addition to the money that the government makes, currency leads to a lot of other costs associated with storage and security. There's not much doubt that digital money is far more efficient and cost effective. But the transition to a cashless society is taking a long time. Part of the problem is that payment providers (banks, credit card companies, etc.) are able to levy high fees on each transaction. In many cases, they make it worthwhile for merchants to opt for cash, even with its carrying costs. Eventually, situations where you'll need cash will become quite rare, but as long as digital money carries significant "taxes" of its own, cash will be around for some time.

Feed Science Daily: Novel Candidate Biomarker For Heart Failure Also Strongly Predicts Risk Of Death (sciencedaily.com)

A potential new biomarker for heart failure may be more powerful than established measures in identifying patients at increased risk for death from several causes. In their report, an international research team describes finding that blood levels of a protein called ST2 both indicate the presence of heart failure among patient with shortness of breath and powerfully predict the risk that a patient will die during the following year.

Feed Science Daily: NASA's Spitzer Spies Monster Galaxy Pileup (sciencedaily.com)

Four galaxies are slamming into each other and kicking up billions of stars in one of the largest cosmic smash-ups ever observed. The clashing galaxies, spotted by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, will eventually merge into a single, behemoth galaxy up to 10 times as massive as our own Milky Way. This rare sighting provides an unprecedented look at how the most massive galaxies in the universe form.

Professor 'Packetslinger' Assigns Questionable Task 411

mrowton writes "A professor at an undisclosed university recently assigned a practical for his computer-security class. The practical, which is worth 15 percent of the students final grade, requires students to perform reconnaissance on an internet server using tools available in the public domain. While the university is allowing the practical to continue it has also stated that the techniques should not be performed on their own web servers. If students are caught performing any scans against university computers then it would prompt: "Disabling their student account and referring them to the Student Dean of Corrections." The assignment was enough for SANS to dub him 'Professor Packetslinger of the School of Loose Screws.'"

Slashdot Top Deals

I am here by the will of the people and I won't leave until I get my raincoat back. - a slogan of the anarchists in Richard Kadrey's "Metrophage"

Working...