Comment Re:Not that simple (Score 2, Insightful) 642

by fubatsaturn on Tuesday March 04, 2008 @01:38PM (#22637960) Attached to: Experiment Shows Traffic 'Shock Waves' Cause Jams

Using shoulders is a BAD idea. Shoulders are there for breakdowns - what happens if traffic is backed up, people are used to driving on the shoulders, and now the shoulder is closed because of a disabled car?

Spreading "1 in 5" Number Does More Harm Than Good 382

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday February 26, 2008 @11:19AM from the think-of-the-children dept.

Regular Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton has some opinions on child safety online and the use of fear mongering. Here are his thoughts. "The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has been running online ads for several years saying that "Each year 1 in 5 children is sexually solicited online", a statistic that has been endlessly repeated, including by vendors of blocking software and by politicians who often paraphrase it to say that 1 in 5 children "are approached by online predators". While others have quietly documented the problems with this statistic, lawmakers still bring it out every year in a push for more online regulation (preempted this year only by the topic du jour of cyberbullying), so it's time for anti-censorship organizations to start campaigning more aggressively against the misleading "1 in 5" number. That means two things: framing the debate with more accurate numbers, and holding the parties accountable for disseminating the wrong ones -- and that means naming names, including those of organizations like the NCMEC that are normally beyond reproach." Read below for the rest.

Lessig Campaign and the Change Congress Movement 409

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 20, 2008 @10:23AM from the real-change-please dept.

GoldenShale wrote a follow up to last week's discussion about Lessig running for congress. He writes "Larry Lessig has created a Lessig08 website, and it looks like he is getting serious about running for congress. In his introduction video he proposes the creation of a national "Change Congress" movement which would try to limit the influence of money in the electoral and legislative processes. Having a technologically savvy representative and a clear intellectual leader to head this kind of movement is exactly what we need to counter the last 8 years of corporate dominance in government."

Scientology Given Direct Access To eBay Database 684

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 19, 2008 @03:48PM from the finger-on-the-scale dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Church of Scientology can delete auctions from eBay with no supervision under the VeRO program, and has used this to delete all resale of the e-meters Scientologists use. This is to stop members from buying used units from ex-members instead of buying from the official (and very expensive) source. Given Scientology's record of fraud and abuse, should eBay give them this level of trust? Will this set a precedent for other companies that want to stop the aftermarket resale of their products?"

UK Report Slams EULAs 239

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 19, 2008 @03:01PM from the signing-it-away dept.

draevil writes "Britain's National Consumer Council has completed an investigation into the practice of software End User License Agreements(EULAs) with the conclusion that many consumers are signing away their legal rights and agreeing to unfair terms, which they could never have scrutinized before purchase. The report also acknowledges that even if the EULA were available prior to purchase, it would be unreasonable to expect an average consumer to understand the terms to which they were agreeing. Here are the full report (PDF) and a summary." The NCC recommends that the European Commission bring softwre licenses under the same consumer protections that apply to other products in the EU.

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