Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment This isn't a victory for Behring-Breivik. (Score 3, Insightful) 491

Someone once pointed out that hoping a rapist gets raped in prison isn't a victory for his victim(s), because it somehow gives him what he had coming to him, but it's actually a victory for rape and violence. I wish I could remember who said that, because they are right. The score doesn't go Rapist: 1 World: 1. It goes Rape: 2.

What this man did is unspeakable, and he absolutely deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. If he needs to be kept away from other prisoners as a safety issue, there are ways to do that without keeping him in solitary confinement, which has been shown conclusively to be profoundly cruel and harmful.

Putting him in solitary confinement, as a punitive measure, is not a victory for the good people in the world. It's a victory for inhumane treatment of human beings. This ruling is, in my opinion, very good and very strong for human rights, *precisely* because it was brought by such a despicable and horrible person. It affirms that all of us have basic human rights, even the absolute worst of us on this planet.

User Journal

Journal Journal: in which i am a noob all over again 17

I haven't posted a journal here in almost three years, because I couldn't find the button to start a new entry. ...yeah, it turns out that it's at the bottom of the page.

So... hi, Slashdot. I used to be really active here, but now I mostly lurk and read. I've missed you.

Comment Re:What a great way to die (Score 1) 600

It's always funny how upset the free market worshiping glibertarians here get when companies pull this shit. It's almost as if corporations don't act for the betterment of society and instead for purely for profit.

A few experiences like this might cause them to question trusting the free market in matters that actually are important, like health care. But no, they'll always freak out and rant about how the free market is always right and anything else is freedom impinging socialism.

They're like abused spouses.

Education

Quantum Physics For Everybody 145

fiziko writes in with a self-described "blatant self-promotion" of a worthwhile service for those wishing to go beyond Khan Academy physics: namely Bureau 42's Summer School. "As those who subscribe to the 'Sci-Fi News' slashbox may know, Bureau 42 has launched its first Summer School. This year we're doing a nine-part series (every Monday in July and August) taking readers from high school physics to graduate level physics, with no particular mathematical background required. Follow the link for part 1."

Comment Re:Wash your hands! (Score 1) 374

This is good advice, and gives me an opportunity to speak to the community at large: some of us who go to cons and are in a position to shake tons of hands politely decline. It's not because we're being dicks, it's because we know it's a good way to substantially decrease our chances of catching and spreading any germs.

Comment Oh, cruel irony (Score 2, Interesting) 374

I played the PAX Pandemic game, where the Enforcers handed out stickers to attendees that read [Carrier] [Infected] or [Immune] (There was also a [Patient Zero].

I got the [Immune] sticker, and by the time I got home on Monday, it was clear that I had the flu. I've had a fever between 100 and 104 all week that finally broke last night, but I'm going to the doctor today because I think whatever I had settled into my lungs. I'll tell him about the H1N1 outbreak and get tested if he wants to run the test, but at this point I think it's safe to assume that I was [Immune] to the Pig Plague, but definitely [Infected] with the damn PAX pox.

Even though it's been a week of misery, it was entirely worth it, and I don't regret going to PAX for a single second.

Comment Not in this case (Score 1) 299

ps - It isn't pleasant, but denying people is pretty much always cheaper than treating them. As that process goes on, it gets nastier and nastier, but if you're into cost avoidance, you didn't much care anyways. Nothing is cheaper than denying people care, if you go all the way.

We apparently wasted half a billion dollars to stop "dozens" of criminals from claiming benefits. Doesn't seem particularly cheap to me.

Comment Re:How on earth... (Score 1) 299

It works great in Germany which has a system we could most easily implement - basic coverage through the coverage with private insurance for anything you want beyond that. Which is pretty much the public option the Democrats are pushing for.

What nobody really ever talks about is how great a job the US private sector is doing with health care.

That because while people can cherry pick a few stats ("people survive prostate cancer 6 months longer!") or a few anecdotes ("a Canadian woman came here to get rid of a cyst while mortgaging her house to pay the bills!"), taken as a whole, our health care system is a failure.

The US gov't can hardly do worse than a system that, unless you're rich, produces poorer outcomes for fewer people with longer wait times at a significantly higher cost.

Slashdot Top Deals

Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith. - Paul Tillich, German theologian and historian

Working...