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Comment The coloring book is late wrt relevancy (Score 1) 324

It's been over 7 years since 9/11, so I'm not sure how relevant painting burning towers now would be for a kid who probably wasn't born yet.

For those who say history shouldn't be covered up, that's true, but this isn't a history book. It's a coloring book aimed toward coping with disaster.

Comment Re:I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV (Score 1) 252

I know it's not directly tied to your post, but your words immediately got me thinking about Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is the chief medical correspondent on CNN and was a nominee for US Surgeon General. He's a very well-spoken professional and is not shy about sharing his opinions on medical issues such as universal coverage and embryonic cell research.

Comment Most of the soundtrack felt forced esp. the timing (Score 1) 523

Disclaimer: I'm only talking about the 1980s songs, so don't direct your comments about classical music to me.

I think 99 luftballoons was an acceptable song to use in the movie, but it was forced. It was played as a dinner date was about to start. I don't recall the scene right before it, but the song would have been a little better timed and much more appropriate if it was played as a scene with Nixon and the generals was ending.

Most of the 80s songs were decent picks, but the only scene which was decently timed was when the elevator version of "Everybody wants to rule the world" was played.

I think the parent is right that the songs were good choices to pair up with the movie, but with the specific scenes, it was half assed.

Comment Re:I'm not really seeing the similarity (Score 1) 227

The summary is so patently ridiculous that I really have to wonder if it was submitted as a joke or is an attempt to troll Slashdot.

You just had to say "patently" in the context of this thread didn't you?

PS - to you smartasses, yes I know there's a difference between trademarks, copyrights, patents, etc.

Comment Doesn't the recycled stuff still end up in a dump? (Score 1) 249

It seems "recycling" is a gimmick is at best delaying the inevitable. So once Bob in Africa can no longer the old Motorola I donated to some freecycling group, he's going to throw it away. How does this really help the environment aside from making the original donator know he's not going to be the one directly throwing the phone away?

Even if we tried to recycle the plastic (as in melt it down or whatever), wouldn't that cause worse emissions?

Comment Mod Parent up -- Good catch! (Score 3, Informative) 86

Apollo 11, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins
Apollo 12, 1969, Charles (Pete) Conrad, , Alan Bean, Richard Francis Gordon
Apollo 14, 1971, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, Stuart Roosa
Apollo 15, 1971, David Scott, James Irwin, Alfred Worden
Apollo 16, 1972, John Young, Charles Duke, Thomas Mattingly
Apollo 17, 1972, Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, Ronald Evans

Comment I can easily answer this (Score 1) 113

Since you refer to "Freedom of Information Act" I'm assuming you're speaking in an American context.

We already do this. Look here:
United States Library of Congress
The National Archives

Perhaps I'm not giving enough credit to Wikipedia/Wikimedia, but I haven't heard much about involvment by professional preservationists who know how to catalog and preserve the stuff, even in a digital context. I speak of the hardcore phd librarian and historian/librarian hybrid types who know how to do this stuff.

Comment How about a "Cursing Puritanism" option? (Score 1) 586

Hopefully Santa will be able to give me back some of the karma I burn after saying this...

These pilgrims were crazy nuts who refused to celebrate Christmas in anyway. It was thanks to nuts like these that many traditions the English used to celebrate were taken out and had to be replaced by German Catholic traditions. It's also this wacky puritanism that helped reinforce that good ol' protestant "you get what you earn and too bad for everyone else" type of philosophy.

Comment Re:Why PE and not the arts? (Score 1) 378

Good question, but I don't think you're going to like my answer.

I didn't have much art in school. I did, however have lots of English, math, history, and science courses. Going back to my unscientific survey, I did ask those same people if their primary and secondary schools had art offerings. The answer was "no".

Granted, art (especially music class and drawing classes) classes have been well-proven to improve thought processes. So yes, both PE and Art should be offered. Give the kid a flute and not a keyboard.

Comment Great Points - why computers and not PE? (Score 1) 378

These are all great points, and it reminded me of a recent point I made in a somewhat recent discussion....

Seriously, I didn't have it and I don't see why kids need them now to learn.

From hindsight, I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood in the 1980s. My parents threw in all they earned for me to attend a Catholic school, and they didn't offer much in the way of computers. When I went on to Catholic high school in the early 90s, I didn't get much in the way with computers until I took AP Computer Science which was taught using already old 286 boxes. I went on to earn my BSCS and have been developing and designing software for about the past 7 years.

More anecdotal evidence. Many people I know who have come to work (not just in software) in the US from countries such as China, India, and Russia when told me their first exposure to computers was around 16-18, right when they are beginning to enter their upper learning institutions.

Fortunately, Physical Education class is cheaper and meets all of these objectives and has other wonderful benefits! It's not fair to choose one over the other, yet many seem to value computer education over physical education in schools, especially with budget cuts.

Comment Re:Industrial espionage (Score 1) 278

Oh I heard of the Lancaster. A couple problems with the Lancaster being the choice to drop a bomb of that weight and size:

1. The Lancaster wouldn't have had big enough doors to drop the bomb.
2. Only with a minimal load would the Lancaster been able to travel a comparable distance. This was important as the Enola Gay (for example) needed to travel a very long distance to drop the bomb.

I think you raise good points, but you're avoiding my point. I'll be more than happy to repeat it again:

It may have taken some immigrant geniuses to help make the bomb boom really big, but you still needed some good minds to help design something capable of dropping something of that type of payload after flying a long distance.

Even with your point on the Lancaster, I'm sure most of it was designed by native-born Brits, so perhaps we are actually in some form of agreement?

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