Comment Different kind of shame (Score 1) 110
Next: kids intentionally underperforming so as not to be listed as one of the high achievers on the data wall.
Comment Re:NO (Score 1) 664
Second rule of real time: see the first rule.
Dogs Can Be Pessimistic 99
Not that it will change anything, but researchers at Bristol University say that your dog might be a gloom-monger. In addition to the downer dogs, the study also found a few that seemed happy no matter how uncaring the world around them was. "We know that people's emotional states affect their judgments and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation positively. What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs," said professor Mike Mendl, an author of the study and head of animal welfare and behavior at Bristol University.
Comment Hu's on First (Score 1) 242
I think it's awesome that the two top leaders in China are named Hu and Wen. It's an Abbott & Costello skit waiting to happen.
Space Sails Could Bring Used Rockets Back To Earth 76
GordonCopestake writes "An article from New Scientist proposes that all new spacecraft have sails attached to bring them back to earth — a measure that would reduce the amount of garbage in space. From the article: 'The risk to spacecraft from a collision with space debris could be reduced by equipping launchers with a gossamer-thin "sail." The idea is to deploy the sail after the rocket has released its payload to amplify the drag of the last vestiges of the atmosphere, and so force the rocket out of orbit.'"
Wired has a related story about the risks faced by the space shuttles as they share orbits with tons of drifting space debris. "... in the 54 missions from STS-50 through STS-114, space junk and meteoroids hit shuttle windows 1,634 times necessitating 92 window replacements. In addition, the shuttle's radiator was hit 317 times, actually causing holes in the radiator's facesheet 53 times."
A Closer Look At Chromium and Browser Security 109
GhostX9 writes "Tom's Hardware's continuing series on computing security has an interview with Adam Barth and Collin Jackson, members of Stanford University's Web Security Group and members of the team that developed Chromium, the open-source core behind Google Chrome. The interview goes into detail regarding the sandboxing approach unique to Chromium, comparisons between the browser and its competition, and web security in general."
Lose Your Amazon Account and Your Kindle Dies 419
Mike writes "If you buy a Kindle and some Kindle ebooks from Amazon, be careful of returning items. Amazon decided that one person had returned too many things, so they suspended his Amazon account, which meant that he could no longer buy any Kindle books, and any Kindle subscriptions he's paid for stop working. After some phone calls, Amazon granted him a one-time exception and reactivated his account again." Take this with as much salt as you'd like.
Comment Ideology? (Score 1) 467
I agree with this guy's main point, but I think he's a little too harsh. He keeps harping on "ideology." If you think that back surgery or cough medicine works, does that mean you're "blinded" by your "faith" in pills and surgery?
We're not talking about homeopathy or some other treatment that couldn't possibly work. These are plausible treatments that at one time seemed promising, but the evidence didn't back them up. If you think that some of them work, maybe you're just misinformed. It doesn't mean you're an ideological zealot.
We're not talking about homeopathy or some other treatment that couldn't possibly work. These are plausible treatments that at one time seemed promising, but the evidence didn't back them up. If you think that some of them work, maybe you're just misinformed. It doesn't mean you're an ideological zealot.
Comment Re:Doesn't seem like that many (Score 1) 176
I don't know what the standard of success should be for the Kindle, but "how well does it sell compared to the iPhone?" probably isn't it.
