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Comment Re:Can't agree more (Score 3, Insightful) 1651

by elhefe38 (#41522763) Attached to: To Encourage Biking, Lose the Helmets

But if you get hit by a car, a cm of Styrofoam is not going to make much of a difference. And I say this as someone who wears a helmet mountain biking and takes it off on the bike lanes.

I know at least 5 cases where this cm of styrofoam *made* a difference between a light injury and a very severe one. The latest case did not involved a car at all. I guess you will find out you are wrong the hard way, although I do not wish that to you...
Cellphones

Game Development On Android 211

Posted by Soulskill from the pong-on-a-positronic-net dept.
Gamasutra is running an article about the state of game development on Android. The author explains some of the strengths and weaknesses of the platform, and makes comparisons to development on the iPhone. Quoting: "While iPhone apps are written in Objective C, the Android SDK uses relatively more programmer-friendly Java. The iPhone store charges developers $99 a year to distribute their apps, while Android has a one-time $25 fee for developers. And the review process for iPhone apps grows increasingly lengthy — sometimes weeks or more — and it's somewhat arcane. Android apps go live as soon as the developer hits the publish button. Google handles the review process post-hoc, and is much more lax in terms of content. ... For now, if a developer decides to implement a game exclusively for a particular smartphone platform, and the choice is between the iPhone and Android, the tradeoff is between trying to get noticed in an incredibly crowded and competitive market where the potential payoff is huge for those at the top, or entering a market with low barriers, little competition, currently low returns, but the possibility of potential growth."
The Almighty Buck

New York State Budget Relies On Entertainment Tax 655

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-thought-mass-would-do-it-first dept.
einer writes "Facing a budget shortfall, New York State Governor David Paterson crafts a budget that taxes iPod music downloads and other 'digitally delivered entertainment services.' On the chopping block is $700 million in school aid and $3.5 billion in health care subsidies."
Medicine

Visual Hallucinations Are a Normal Grief Reaction 550

Posted by kdawson from the who-goes-there dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Vaughn Bell has written an interesting essay at Scientific American about grief hallucinations. This phenomenon is a normal reaction to bereavement that is rarely discussed, although researchers now know that hallucinations are more likely during times of stress. Mourning seems to be a time when hallucinations are particularly common, to the point where feeling the presence of the deceased is the norm rather than the exception. A study by Agneta Grimby at the University of Goteborg found that over 80 percent of elderly people experience hallucinations associated with their dead partner one month after bereavement, as if their perception had yet to catch up with the knowledge of their beloved's passing. It's not unusual for people who have lost a partner to clearly see or hear the person about the house, and sometimes even converse with them at length. 'Despite the fact that hallucinations are one of the most common reactions to loss, they have barely been investigated and we know little more about them. Like sorrow itself, we seem a little uncomfortable with it, unwilling to broach the subject,' writes Bell. 'We often fall back on the cultural catch all of the "ghost" while the reality is, in many ways, more profound.' "
Censorship

Senate Votes To Empower Parents As Censors 418

Posted by kdawson from the you-are-what-you-block dept.
unlametheweak recommends an Ars Technica report that the US Senate has unanimously passed a bill requiring the FCC to explore what "advanced blocking technologies" are available to parents to help filter out "indecent or objectionable programming." "...the law does focus on empowering parents to take control of new media technologies to deal with undesired content, rather than handing the job over to the government. It asks the FCC to focus the inquiry on blocking systems for a 'wide variety of distribution platforms,' including wireless and Internet, and an array of devices, including DVD players, set top boxes, and wireless applications."
Censorship

Submission + - IMSLP re-opens to the public (imslp.org)

Submitted by
Chip Zoller
Chip Zoller writes: "As previously mentioned on slashdot about the closing of IMSLP here on 21 October, 2007 and the participation of Project Gutenberg slashdotted here 3 days later, I would like to alert slashdot and their viewers' attention that our site, IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project), has re-opened to the public for good after a 10 month hiatus. All the news updates in our interim can be found linked to the main page as well as any changes to the system. We take great pride in re-opening to the world as it hopefully demonstrates our willpower to make the masterpieces of history free to the world, and moreover that we will not be bullied by publishers sporting outrageous claims of copyright in a country where they clearly are expired. Sincerely, Chip Zoller IMSLP"

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