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Comment The two questions are orthogonal (Score 3, Insightful) 1277

There is nothing about being a Republic that prevents a country from also being a Democracy. I'm sick of that false distinction. A Republic is a state whose head of state is not a monarch. A Democracy is a state whose government's authority derives from the people. A state can be one, both, or neither.

Comment I'm a heretic on this, but firewalls are pointless (Score 2) 217

for computers that deliberately offer a server to the public. Do what you want to do with network topology, instead. If your computer offers a web server, why is it listening for anything other than HTTP requests on its public-facing interface? If its not listening for anything other than HTTP requests on its public-facing interface, what does the firewall do?

Comment Re:Did the author sleep through Anthro 101? (Score 1) 189

Right, that was my point. I read an article where a commentator said "We have a lot of Cassandras running around predicting doom, but nothing's happened yet." Of course (and maybe this was your point about self-consistent foolishness), this was about the financial system just before the collapse in 2008, so in a way the guy was vindicated in calling them Cassandras. It's just not what he meant.

Comment Did the author sleep through Anthro 101? (Score 4, Informative) 189

Even non-hominids use implements like rocks and sticks. Tools are specifically fabricated or altered: what's important about tools is not that they are used but that they are made. Unless we find the rocks they used and see whether they were flaked by the hominids or just found already sharp, we can't call these "tools".
Space

Star Cooler Than Venus Found 55

crossconnects writes to mention that Discovery is reporting that astronomers have found a nearby star with a mild surface temperature of 660 degrees fahrenheit. "The spectacularly unspectacular object is of special interest because it falls right smack in the middle of the final frontier that divides mega-planets from the puniest stars. Stars in that realm theoretically qualify as an entirely new stellar type -- what's called a Y class dwarf."

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