Comment Re:This is news? (Score 5, Funny) 683
It is solipsistic in here, but it I'm pretty sure it's just me.
Comment Re:Comic Book Science (Score 1) 683
Why is the parent modded -1? Until the Multiverse theory is actually experimentally verifiable, then it remains a "fill-in-the-gaps" theory just like ID is, and is worthy of the same criticism.
Comment Re:Again (Score 1) 683
I could swear...
Could you? And to what? God? The Multiverse?
Comment Good one... (Score 3, Funny) 101
"We're all enthusiastic," Diaconis says, "because you can describe it to your mom, the math is hard, and the results are interesting."
RTFA just for it to turn out to be a Your-Mom joke. Thanks guys. You really got me.
Comment Only 16 accidents? (Score 1) 128
from TFA:
So far this year, EMSA vehicles have been involved in 16 intersection accidents, typically caused by an unyielding driver. Fifteen of those times, the ambulances were on a call, said EMSA spokeswoman Tina Wells.
16 in a year is nothing. If the Howler is as loud as they say, watch this number go up as motorists cover their ears or have heart attacks while driving.
Comment Expanded to the general case... (Score 1) 610
Government regulations create a terribly restrictive atmosphere for people who do __________ as a (hobby/profession).
How Regulations Hamper Chemical Hobbyists 610
An anonymous reader writes "Chemical & Engineering News just ran this story that relates how government regulations create a terribly restrictive atmosphere for people who do chemistry as a hobby. (A related story was previously posted.)" The article gives some examples of why hamfisted regulations are harmful even to those who aren't doing the chemistry themselves: "Hobby chemists will tell you that home labs have been the source of some of chemistry's greatest contributions. Charles Goodyear figured out how to vulcanize rubber with the same stove that his wife used to bake the family's bread. Charles Martin Hall discovered the economical electrochemical process for refining aluminum from its ore in a woodshed laboratory near his family home. A plaque outside Sir William Henry Perkin's Cable Street residence in London notes that the chemist 'discovered the first aniline dyestuff, March 1856, while working in his home laboratory on this site and went on to found science-based industry.'"
Comment Re:Horrors!! Being positive causes positive covera (Score 1) 1601
I agree with Bill Maher. Not every story has two sides.
The story has more than two sides. Where were the third party candidates ever mentioned in media coverage?
would get as much positive press as a smooth campaign by two qualified candidates running on a platform of
- equitable economic policy,
- ethical government that leaves people free to make their own religious choices
- the return of the USA to the community of nations
The candidate you describe sounds like Bob Barr to me, and also like Ron Paul while he was still running, but where did the media coverage go for their side of the story? The American Presidential race has been and will continue to be a popularity tug-of-war between the lesser of two evils until the debate is actually opened up to more than two barely distinguishable viewpoints.
Comment Re:Tell us something we don't know (Score 1) 243
Which would be illegal, considering the bottom of the locusmag homepage clearly says:
(c) 1997-2008 by Locus Publications. All rights reserved.
Comment Re:Italy, eh? (Score 1) 153
In the sense of Machiavelli's "The Prince", perhaps; in the sense of Machiavelli's "Discourses on Livy", not so much. The dude gets a pretty bad wrap over the former, which is largely contradicted by the latter.
Comment Re:Windfall profits (Score 1) 1486
Yes, I believe you're right. Following that though, if the rebate provides the relief it is supposed to, the increased demand should trigger a rise in prices as per the allowance of the market, shouldn't it?
Comment Re:Windfall profits (Score 1) 1486
Is there a reason why oil companies won't raise prices in order to transfer some or all of the cost of the Windfall Profits Tax to consumers?
