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Comment Finally a Peer! (Score 2) 467

I'm sure there must be others, but this is the first I have heard of anyone else being jailed for an overdue movie since I suffered the same in 1996. I had moved away to college the day after renting a movie, both myself and my roommate thought each other had returned the movie. It turns out that it had gotten mistakenly buried in the "big box of VHS movies" we all probably had at the time. About a year later, I was a passenger in someone else's car which got stranded in an ice storm. We were "rescued" by a sheriff who apparently thought he was saving the world by checking our IDs and criminal records (after being innocently stranded in an ice storm, I guess I already said that) and found that I was wanted for 5th degree theft for said overdue movie. I was then escorted to the local jail and spent the night. I have told this story at both my expense and to much laughter from the audience. It is indeed a joke!
Medicine

'Alternative Medicine' Clinic Attempts To Silence Critics 515

Posted by Soulskill from the my-science-can-beat-up-your-science dept.
Asmodae writes "Stanislaw Burzynski runs a clinic specializing in an alternative cancer treatment called 'antineoplaston therapy,' and charges thousands of dollars for the privilege. Unfortunately, there's no scientific support for such treatment, and skeptics all over the web are raising red flags and trying to warn potential patients away. This includes high-school blogger Rhys Morgan, who has received legal threats from Burzynski's clinic for his efforts. Phil Plait summarizes the situation thus: 'In general, it’s a little unusual, to say the least, for a team doing medical research to sue someone for criticizing them. That’s because real science thrives on criticism, since it’s only through critiques that the potential errors of a particular method can be assessed — that’s why research is supposed to be published in peer-reviewed journals as well. Suing is the antithesis of that idea. ... I’ll note that the clinic has threatened to sue multiple people, including Peter Bowditch and Andy Lewis, two other bloggers who have criticized antineoplaston therapy.'"
The Courts

Judge Blasts Prosecution of Alleged NSA Leaker 95

Posted by Soulskill from the be-less-bad dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that Judge Richard D. Bennett harshly criticized US prosecutor William M. Welch III for his treatment of a former spy agency official Thomas Drake, who was accused of leaking classified material. Bennett called the delays in the now-closed case 'unconscionable' and compared it to British tyranny in the colonial era. In 2007, FBI agents raided Drake's house, but it took over two years for officials to indict him. 'And then, over a year later, on the eve of trial, in June of 2011, the government says, "Whoops, we dropped the whole case,"' Bennett said. Drake was given a mild penalty for pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge of exceeding authorized use of a computer: a year's probation and 240 hours of community service while all 10 felony counts were dropped. 'That's four years of hell that a citizen goes through,' Bennett said. 'It was not proper. It doesn't pass the smell test.' In contrast with his tough words for Welch, Bennett singled out for praise Drake's public defenders, James Wyda and Deborah L. Boardman, saying their work on behalf of Drake was 'at the highest level of professionalism.' Judge Welch said the matter was now closed and addressed Drake: 'I wish you the best of luck in the rest of your life.'"

Comment Re:Works well in Iowa (Score 1) 393

by rm_-fr_* (#31970480) Attached to: Arizona Trialing System That Lets Utility System Control Home A/Cs

Argh! I'm sorry for my reply. I should know better than to try and have intelligent "conversation" late on a Friday night with a few cocktails in the belly. Heh...got your joke now ;) I took it wrong last night for some reason...

I certainly understand the bordering states jokes! A few of them are universal, e.g. Why did the [insert state college here] switch from natural turf to artificial turf? To keep the cheerleaders from grazing!

Bad joke, I know..

Comment Re:Works well in Iowa (Score 1) 393

by rm_-fr_* (#31964968) Attached to: Arizona Trialing System That Lets Utility System Control Home A/Cs

Wow! I'll try and be more constructive than that stab. I simply stated (or should have stated) that my power provider offers a program to opt-in for a power savings program for them to shut off my air conditioner for up to 15 minutes per day during high times. Spread this "miniscule" and "draconian" power savings across thousands of homes and you have some real aggregate power savings at negligible personal discomforts. I have opted in because I believe in the cause, and frankly, have never actually witnessed or been discomforted by the practice...

I am just a humble man in Iowa, as you point out, but you seem a bit oblivious to the big picture. Are you a simple nuclear power fan? More waste leaking nuclear power plants is the answer (covered here recently)? I'm not against it entirely, but I find it somewhat "simpleton"...

Anyway, I'm tired in the US midwest, could you please provide your locality so I can ponder jokes about yourself and those in your area?
Games

NYT's "Games To Avoid" an Ironic, Perfect Gamer Wish List 189

Posted by Soulskill from the more-or-less dept.
MojoKid writes "From October to December, the advertising departments of a thousand companies exhort children to beg, cajole, and guilt-trip their parents for all manner of inappropriate digital entertainment. As supposedly informed gatekeepers, we sadly earthbound Santas are reduced to scouring the back pages of gaming review sites and magazines, trying to evaluate whether the tot at home is ready for Big Bird's Egg Hunt or Bayonetta. Luckily, The New York Times is here to help. In a recent article provokingly titled 'Ten Games to Cross off Your Child's Gift List,' the NYT names its list of big bads — the video games so foul, so gruesome, so perverse that we'd recommend you buy them immediately — for yourself. Alternatively, if you need gift ideas for the surly, pale teenager in your home whose body contains more plastic then your average d20, this is the newspaper clipping to stuff in your pocket. In other words, if you need a list like this to understand what games to not stuff little Johnny's stocking with this holiday season, you've got larger issues you should concern yourself with. We'd suggest picking up an auto-shotty and taking a few rounds against the horde — it's a wonderful stress relief and you're probably going to need it."
Image

Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331

Posted by samzenpus from the snack-is-going-to-be-on-the-floor-today dept.
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Earth

GPS Receiver Noise Can Be Used To Detect Snow Depth 51

Posted by timothy from the for-the-journal-of-sensors-and-transducers dept.
cremeglace writes "Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder have found a use for GPS besides finding restaurants or the occasional road-that-doesn't-exist: it can be used to measure snow depth. The new technique, which takes advantage of distortions of the GPS signal after it reflects off the snowpack, may potentially improve weather forecasts by allowing meteorologists to track snowfall patterns. ScienceNOW has the story, which one geophysicist describes as 'a classical case of one person's noise becoming another person's signal.'"
Communications

Arranging Electronic Access For Your Survivors? 335

Posted by timothy from the leave-a-note-on-the-fridge dept.
smee2 writes "In the past, when a family member died, you could look through their files and address books to find all the people and businesses that should be notified that the person is deceased. Now the hard-copy address book is becoming a thing of the past. I keep some contact information in a spreadsheet, but I have many online friends that I only have contact with through web sites such as Flickr. My email accounts have many more people listed than my address book spreadsheet. I have no interest in collecting real world info from all my online contacts. The sites where I have social contact with people from around the world (obviously) require user names and passwords. Two questions: 1. How do you intend to let the executors of your estate or family members know which online sites/people you'd like them to notify of your demise? 2. How are you going to give access to the passwords, etc. needed to access those sites in a way that doesn't cause a security concern while you're still alive?"

Comment Re:Has your VIP ever heard of a little company... (Score 3, Informative) 149

by rm_-fr_* (#18293216) Attached to: Samba Success in the Enterprise?
For what it is worth, I don't have so much a story as to who is using Samba but rather who is "shipping" it in enterprise products. I work for an HP partner and HP has a product I can vouch for called "HP StorageWorks Enterprise File Services Clustered Gateway". Basically a NAS box on steroids. It comes in two flavors: Windows and Linux. Both serve CIFS...you do the math...

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