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Comment Us vs Them (Score 2, Insightful) 961

by ghislain_leblanc (#32899528) Attached to: Given Truth, the Misinformed Believe Lies More
This is a problem with pretty much every political issue there is. You have to pick a side eventually. Very few people are truly neutral as far as political spectrum goes. You are leaning either to the right or to the left. The problem is that when you finally pick your side (early twenties, typically) it becomes natural to stick to it no matter what new information comes your way and you end up in a "us versus them" kind of position. You see everything that doesn't make your side look good as propaganda or media bias. I think politics can be compared to professional sports in many ways in the sense that science, data and morality have basically nothing to do with who you are rooting for.
United States

State Senator Caught Looking At Porn On Senate Floor 574

Posted by samzenpus from the let's-vote-on-this-instead dept.
Everyone knows how boring a debate on a controversial abortion bill can get on the Senate floor. So it's no wonder that Florida State Sen. Mike Bennett took the time to look at a little porn and a video of a dog running out of the water and shaking itself off. From the article: "Ironically, as Bennett is viewing the material, you can hear a Senator Dan Gelber's voice in the background debating a controversial abortion bill. 'I'm against this bill,' said Gelber, 'because it disrespects too many women in the state of Florida.' Bennett defended his actions, telling Sunshine State News it was an email sent to him by a woman 'who happens to be a former court administrator.'"
NASA

Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video 266

Posted by Soulskill from the new-perspective-on-an-old-tragedy dept.
longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."
OS X

Apple Patches Massive Holes In OS X 246

Posted by timothy from the well-it-wouldn't-be-polite-to-patch-windows dept.
Trailrunner7 writes with this snippet from ThreatPost: "Apple's first Mac OS X security update for 2010 is out, providing cover for at least 12 serious vulnerabilities. The update, rated critical, plugs security holes that could lead to code execution vulnerabilities if a Mac user is tricked into opening audio files or surfing to a rigged Web site." Hit the link for a list of the highlights among these fixes.

Comment Re:Yep (Score 1) 177

by ghislain_leblanc (#29310775) Attached to: The Design Failures That Led To <em>Rock Band</em>
Another fun thing, the drums in Rock Band is actually decent training for real drums

I have to disagree here. I've been playing the drums for 15 years and I just can't play drums in Rock Band. Drums have a very improvised and intuitive nature in the way that you don't necessarily have to play the thing exactly the same way every time, especially in rock and jazz music. The kick in Rock Band is pretty much randomly placed which makes it very difficult for a real drummer to follow the visual cues of the song. Basically, I have a tendencie to try and play the real thing when the game does everything but...

The guitars on the other hand, I find are very fun to play, even if I do play some real guitar in life. Of course it is nothing like the real thing but the picking patterns make it "feel" more realistic and "musical".
Education

US Colleges Say Hiring US Students a Bad Deal 490

Posted by CmdrTaco from the talking-to-you-cliff dept.
theodp writes "Many US colleges and universities have notices posted on their websites informing US companies that they're tax chumps if they hire students who are US citizens. 'In fact, a company may save money by hiring international students because the majority of them are exempt from Social Security (FICA) and Medicare tax requirements,' advises the taxpayer-supported University of Pittsburgh (pdf) as it makes the case against hiring its own US students. You'll find identical pitches made by the University of Delaware, the University of Cincinnati, Kansas State University, the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Iowa State University, and other public colleges and universities. The same message is also echoed by private schools, such as John Hopkins University, Brown University, Rollins College and Loyola University Chicago."

Comment 24 hours in a day (Score 1) 865

by ghislain_leblanc (#28550671) Attached to: Staying In Shape vs. a Busy IT Job Schedule?
Looking at the previous comments, everyone seems to agree that there are only 24 hours in any given day. Staying in shape takes about 1 of those 24 hours about every other day. In the end it's all about choices. Is it really worth it sacrificing your health for some shity night shift?

Ok, not that helpfull...

You say you need time to "unwind", well my friend, to me anyway; working out IS unwinding. It makes even the most stressful day seem a little bit better just knowing that I still managed to do something good for ME. It's also been demonstrated (citation needed) that healthy people get promoted faster, talk about killing two birds with one stone... Taking your health seriously could indirectly get you out of that shitty job one day!

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