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Comment Two sides to every story. (Score 1) 917

I know I might be playing devil's advocate here, but:

The HR rep began the meeting by asking me if I had noticed that *I* was the common theme in all of the reports I had been making, and that if I had ever considered that I might be the problem.

This worries me. What if HR are onto something? Can we fully trust her account of what happened here?

Comment Re:Your conclusion is wrong. (Score 1) 277

The football players have flushed your chess pieces and stuffed you in your locker, yet you still hope that if you just stick it out you will (a) magically become one of the popular kids or (b) wait a year and hope that Principal Trump will see fit to take your side.

Funny, but totally wrong. And I very much doubt you're going to find many Trump supporters in the astronomy community...

Before joining the TMT, China was developing its own similar design and was scouting its own locations on the Tibetan Plateau above 5000m.

Oh, they still are. But that site is pretty remote, and higher altitude doesn't automatically mean better seeing.

Comment Your conclusion is wrong. (Score 3, Informative) 277

Astronomer here, I live and work on the Big Island. You are completely wrong to assume this means the end of TMT in Hawaii, it was pretty much what was expected to happen after the state supreme court vacated the permit last December. While the new permitting process is going to take more time (months or years, nobody knows for sure), TMT seem to be taking their time deciding on their next step and are still hoping to continue as planned. I have heard nothing that would suggest otherwise. Please understand a big project like that doesn't just up and leave after having so much invested. Supporters of the TMT here (of which there are plenty) are still hoping a new, watertight permit will come out of all this. Frankly, we're more shocked by the recent news about another batch of anti-TMT protesters being acquitted because they claimed to have "prevented a greater harm from occurring". But then again, this is Hawaii, and that's how things work here.

Mars

4-Billion-Pixel Panorama View From Curiosity Rover 101

A reader points out that there is a great new panorama made from shots from the Curiosity Rover. "Sweep your gaze around Gale Crater on Mars, where NASA's Curiosity rover is currently exploring, with this 4-billion-pixel panorama stitched together from 295 images. ...The entire image stretches 90,000 by 45,000 pixels and uses pictures taken by the rover's two MastCams. The best way to enjoy it is to go into fullscreen mode and slowly soak up the scenery — from the distant high edges of the crater to the enormous and looming Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual destination."

Comment not really. (Score 3, Informative) 341

This submission text is tainted by the poster's personal opinions - opinions which are, to say the very least, not unanimously shared. If you read the article it is striking how Lamo seems completely bereft of any sympathy for Manning, how he might have possibly fooled him into confessing by promising to treat it in confidence - and how he likes to hide behind complex (made up?) words and phrases instead of answering the interviewer's questions directly. One for the psychologists...

Comment Game designers don't read enough books (Score 1) 427

My favourite passage from that article:

While there have been some massive steps forward in terms of what games can and are willing to do story-wise though, plot is actually the aspect of game design which has come on the least in the last twenty years.

Graham Linehan recently said on Charlie Brooker’s GamesWipe that he thinks a lot of that is because game designers don’t read enough books and that modern games are made by people who watch more films than they read stories. He’s probably onto something there, we reckon – especially when you consider the rambling nonsense which is the Metal Gear Solid series.

The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Film Piracy, Organized Crime AND Terrorism 1

flip-flop writes: The RAND Corporation has just released a lengthy report titled "Film Piracy, Organized Crime, and Terrorism" attempting to link all three. The authors suggest that terrorists might be financing themselves through movie piracy — and in 3 out of 14 of their international case studies, they claim that profits from piracy end up with suspected terrorist organizations.
But now for the interesting part! Quote from the preface: The study was made possible by a grant from the Motion Picture Association (MPA). Ah, what a surprise...

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