Almost every time something like this happens, the commentary is inevitably shallow. People want to pretend that if only parents acted better, or if the schools paid more attention, or if we held people responsible for their actions... All of it is hogwash! The US has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world and we still manage to have bullies. The problem is we keep asking the wrong questions. We don't ask why our kids bully each other. We don't ask what we as the "adults" are doing to not only allows but encourages this sort of behavior. We look for simple answers and somewhere to lay the blame and direct our outrage. The truth is if you examine our culture, it glorifies bullying. Our reality TV shows barely fall short of bully worship. Our politicians put their know it all mugs on TV and bully each other, or people who disagree with them. We worship the notion that we should get what we want, that we shouldn't have to negotiating with those who disagree, that even if our point of view is in the minority, we need not question it. We are addicted to self righteousness and inflicting our point of view on others, even when it means that thousands or hundreds of thousands will be out of work, or that people will go hungry. We express indignant and righteous opinions about people and groups and classes of people, whom we don't know and never will, be they the ultra rich, or the poor and impoverished. They are lazy or morally bankrupt or selfish. We are cruel to each other and then we have the audacity to turn around and be indignant when our kids treat each other with the same indifference and lack of compassion or empathy. Guess what America, they learned it from the older generation, and until we collectively grow up and learn to conduct ourselves in a respectful and caring manner, our kids will never do so. Further more, we'll have no position from which to expect that from them, except the position of hypocrisy.

it's also inaccurate, depending on what kind of contracting. For a large and costly project like the health care site, the govt would require an RFP process, which is lowest bid. It is strictly enforced by law, and doesn't give any room for the Govt. to assess the feasibility of the bid. Many contractors are savvy at gaming the system, and manage to define project scope in sufficiently vague terms that very little is enforceable. I have participated in contract negotiations for my local government after an RFP process and I had to be very careful in my review of the contract. A government contract in software must include a specific and detailed scope for the project. Vendors are forever trying to strike language that was included by the government, so that they can later claim (according to the contract) that this requirement or that requirement are out of scope. Because the contract is reviewed by a separate legal team, and is usually hundreds of pages, it could be easy to miss those "omissions" by vendors who negotiated in what I consider to be bad faith. I'll tell you, the contract I negotiated was thorough, but we still had 20k in additional expense from things the vendor removed that we had agreed upon earlier. That vendor didn't like me either, as I expected a quality product and didn't go for their shenanigans. As is always the case, the reality of the situation is more complex than the simplistic and not-at-all thought out political point some partisan is trying to make.

This prick with 800 tickets is, well a prick! Contrast him with Justin Hanners...what is wrong in America? Justin got fired for refusing to give bogus tickets in order to meet a quota for writing tickets: http://www.occupypolice.org/2013/08/24/ways-to-helpsupport-alabama-police-officer-justin-hanners-who-was-fired-for-exposing-ticket-quotas/

http://www.mailvelope.com/

Actually this kind of charge is almost never pursued in Florida, because of the stand your ground laws. The DA and police won't spend resources pursuing a case that they know will never result in a prosecution, even if they think the perp is guilty...bad expenditure of money!

The media coverage did indeed suck! Just like the comments to this Slashdot article, they lacked insight, nuance, and honest reflection. What actually happened was this: Zimmerman, a Hispanic neighborhood watch captain, whose neighborhood had seen a consistent problem with crime, made some really poor choices, which resulted in a seventeen year old African American kid, who wasn't breaking any laws being killed. Did Zimmerman commit murder? I don't think so, however was he guilty of manslaughter...I think yes! I can imagine myself at different points in time being in either Zimmerman's or Martin's position. Zimmerman should have listened to the police dispatcher and left Martin alone. He had no business following and confronting Martin. He could have identified his self as the neighborhood watch captain and assured Martin that he wasn't trying to mug him or something. To be blunt, if I had been Martin, and some guy, who looked like Zimmerman got out of his car and began following me through a neighborhood which had seen crime problems, I would have assumed he was up to no good. Self defense in this case is a two way street. No one knows what really happened, how the altercation started. But it is clear to me that Zimmerman made a really poor choice, when he exited his car to follow Martin. So did he intentionally murder Martin? NO! Did Zimmerman make some really stupid decisions that resulted in someone's death, who didn't deserve to die, and who wasn't engaged in criminal activity? ABSOLUTELY!

if you want to work with computers but not be a computer scientist, maybe you should pursue a degree in IT. Western Governor's University offers one and there are many being offered in various universities. CS is exactly that...science and it requires math. With a CS degree, you should be able to do some Assembler programming, and you should be able to program simulations (math intensive). If you want to go into any kind of cyber forensics, math will be important. You know what...even being a business analyst requires the use of math, so I suggest learning it. You mentioned differential equations, which aren't truly advanced math. They are important in science, engineering and economics. Just stick with it and in the end, my suspicion is it will be worth the effort.

However, the environmental impact of electric and hybrid cars, which I haven't really seen calculated is the manufacturing process of the batteries for these vehicles. Couple that with the hangover of disposing of those batteries once they've reached end of life, and their negative environmental impact becomes much larger. I don't know how it compares with that of gasoline powered vehicles, but it is larger than most people think.

I suppose, on the other hand, this would open the door for entrepreneurs to develop tools to find and eliminate these rootkits. Also I'd be curious to see what kind of backlash the entertainment industry suffers from this.

rootkits are cybercrime. I suppose if we want to revoke the 18 U.S.C. 1030 law preventing unauthorized access to a computer. Then consumers could retaliate by accessing entertainment industry computers and install malware, particularly ransomware, then it might be equitable. Whats good for the goose...

Arrrrgh! I need booty and IP and FSM!

The title of the article indicates that the rock might be from mercury, so there is no one claiming to have proved it's origin. However, there is the possibility of being pretty certain. (the main question being how did it get from Mercury to Earth?)

Spectroscopy lets us know what Mercury is made of and comparing this rock to what we know of mercury will allow scientists to determine the likelihood of a rock coming from that planet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectroscopy/

As an atheist, I have to chime in here and say that is a pretty broad statement to back up. Furthermore, it is not true.

I personally know many protestants who don't accept a literal interpretation of the bible, including ministers and youth ministers.

Your statement lumps Southern Baptists together with UCC and it is simply inaccurate. Additionally, my own denomination, Unitarian Universalism his strong roots in Protestantism, but is based on a non-literal interpretation of the bible and today members may not even read the bible.

http://reasonable-thought.blogspot.com/2012/07/interdependent-existence-our-blessings.html

That was a major oversight on the part of ATT. Whether the defendant's actions were malicious or not, ATT is at fault here. There is NO EXCUSE for their publishing all of that private information freely on the internet. ATT are NOT victims...they are perpetrators even if it is through their own incompetence. The fact that they pressed charges and that this sentence has gone this way has ensured that I will not use ATT as a carrier in the future...wow, what scum bags!