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Comment Re:Fitting out (Score 1) 757

There is so much wrong with your thinking here that I am a bit bewildered about how to best address it. Besides the fact that you cannot evade mental illness in this manner, and actually instead could be setting up your child for some mental dysfunction of her own, what you are definitely doing is driving up the likelihood that the less affluent children in your area will stay less affluent and thus more prone to related stress-induced mental issues. Own that you are contributing to (probably measurable) increased levels of depression in your community thanks to the "crazies" (ie: the less well off) being ostracized by the "rich" kids, who think they are so much better people because they have iProducts.

A well-balanced person will be able to navigate society successfully without having to fearfully avoid entire classes of people less fortunate than themselves. Perhaps instead you should teach your child how to recognize personality issues to be avoided in ALL social classes (sociopaths, manipulators, jealousy, passive aggression, etc.), while being considerate and helpful to the less fortunate, while you focus on the problems of the affluent:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950124/>The Culture of Affluence: Psychological Costs of Material Wealth

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10439196/Children-of-rich-parents-suffering-increased-mental-health-problems.html>Children of rich parents suffering increased mental health problems

ps, I doubt you will change your mind based on this diatribe, but it needed to be said.

Comment Re:The 'real market value of his work' is irreleva (Score 1) 254

Don't need the car analogy here, you're spot on. The photographer is a PROFESSIONAL photographer, not just anybody with a camera. Pros retain the copyright and sell only the rights to use the image(s) for a specified purpose and duration. It's in the contract that the hotel obviously didn't take seriously. For that matter, the photographer can use (or resell) his image as much as he likes, as exclusive usage rights probably weren't assigned permanently to Sofitel.

Comment Re:First fix (Score 1) 1839

Actually, in most cases you're probably better off not using "moving on" either. I'm guessing the misused phrase leaked into popular culture from 1980's "corporate speak", when mid-level managers babbled this sort of faux intelligent gibberish in attempts to cover up the fact that they actually had little or nothing to say.

"Moving forward" is exceedingly annoying in sentences which already address the future (ie; "What we should do moving forward (or on) is x."). Get to the point; "What we should do is not use the phrase "moving forward" where it is only redundant. If you must add something, how about "from here on out"? At least that phrase adds a wee bit of additional meaning to a sentence. Not much though.

Comment First fix (Score 5, Funny) 1839

I wanted to use this opportunity to get a discussion going on how we can improve Slashdot moving forward.

Let's start by banning the phrase "moving forward" unless you're talking about physical motion in a forward direction. Without a time machine there is no other direction for the "movement" of which you speak.

Comment Re: Andrew Carnegie (Score 2) 240

Carnegie was keen to advance from a young age, and was sharp enough to impress those who could help him up. His fortune was built on that, as pretty early on he was invited into a succession of sweet insider trading organized by his mentor, Thomas A. Scott (and John Edgar Thompson). Carnegie would not have convinced his mother to take out a mortgage on the family home so as to speculate with the funds if he didn't absolutely know his investment would pay off big. So, basically, corruption was his real ride to the top. (Surprise!!)

Comment Re:Those Anti-Science Liberals. (Score 1) 414

Science is a process, and it will not always fit nicely into peoples political views. Sometimes ideas you hold most dearly are wrong.

“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.” - Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Marcia Angell

If we're gonna accept witchdoctor medicine (with iffy at best science behind it), might as well let in the homeopaths, no? Fair is fair.

Comment Re:A Boom in Civilization (Score 2, Interesting) 227

Previous phases of human exploration had a number of common or frequent driving elements that space exploration is not likely to have. Such as: zealous religious missionary activities, conquest at behest of the king, racist judgement and condemnation of indigenous cultures, imperialist overreach into another country for minerals, slaves or other goods, etc. Most of that ideology is driven by the social thinkers/drivers at the top (or the powers behind the throne) and the privileged class just below that, not by the average citizens who prefer to just raise their families in peace. Humans will probably not even make it into the "interstellar community" if the species can't shake off the rule of sociopath oligarchs.

If we can assume we've evolved enough to travel among the stars, we would have solved a number of social problems (anger management?) and tech ones as well. I would expect we'd be way, way beyond playing "Billy Goat's Bluff".

Ok, there's plenty of space out there. We might miss a few battles just looking up from earth.

Comment Re:A Boom in Civilization (Score 1) 227

Think about it, war is extremely unlikely among interstellar species. With that level of technology, you're not gonna be hunting for food. Nor will scarcity of materials be a problem. Come on, you can travel among the stars, and you're gonna find one particular solar system that you just gotta have, right? Because this one system is just soooo cool, and there are no others out there like it. So, you figure "I'll just kill off the other interstellar species using the planets there and it'll be all mine!"

Or maybe it's the other scenario: Some insect-like aliens are gonna scour the universe just to hunt down other life forms, just 'cause that's what scary lookin' (by human standards) aliens do.

Anyone who believes inter-species battles is likely to be encountered in space needs some serious help.

Comment Re:The average human being (Score 4, Insightful) 291

Confessions should not be admissible as evidence in court unless the jurors are given a full, uncut tape of the interrogation that led up to that confession. Along with that, jurors should be allowed to directly question attorneys and witnesses.

And informed of the jury nullification option.

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